CIHM 
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Series 
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ICMH 

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microfiches 
(monographies) 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  IMicroraproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  da  microraproductions  historiquas 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
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the  images  In  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


r7|  Coloured  covers  / 


n 

• 

0 

Q 
D 
D 
D 

D 


n 


Couverture  de  couleur 

Covers  damaged  / 
Couverture  endommagde 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  pelliculde 

Cover  title  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  gdographiques  en  couleur 

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Bound  with  other  material  / 
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possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  6\6  film^s. 

Additional  comments  / 
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6\6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli- 
ographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifteation  dans  la  m6tho- 
de  normale  de  filmage  sont  indiqu^s  ci-dc:30us. 

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partiellement  obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une 
pelure,  etc.,  ont  6\6  film^es  h  nouveau  de  fapon  k 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 

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colorations  variables  ou  des  decolorations  sont 
filmtes  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la  meilleure  image 
possible. 


0 


D 


Thia  itwn  la  filnwd  at  the  raduction  ratio  chackad  below  / 

Ca  documant  aat  film*  au  taux  de  rMuctkm  IndiqiM  d-deaaoua. 


lOx 


14x 


ItX 


12x 


16x 


20x 


T 


22x 


26x 


30x 


24x 


28x 


32x 


The  copy  fiimtd  h«r«  has  b—r  raproduead  thanks 
to  tha  ganarosity  of: 

Library  of  tha  National 
Arehivat  of  Canada 


L'axamplaira  filmi  fut  raproduit  grica  A  la 
gAn4rosit4  da: 

La  bibliothiqua  dti  Arehivat 
nationalat  du  Canada 


Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
possibia  eonsidaring  tha  condition  and  lagib  Mty 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filnr*'  ^q  contract  spacif icationa. 


Las  imagas  suivantas  ont  txt  raproduitas  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattat*  da  l'axamplaira  film*,  at  an 
eonformit*  avac  las  conditions  du  contrst  da 
Kimaga. 


Original  copiaa  in  printad  papar  covara  ara  filmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  eevar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  iiiuatratad  impraa- 
sion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  apprepriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  iiiuatratad  impraa- 
aion.  and  anding  on  tha  iaat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  Uluatratad  impraaaion. 


Laa  axamplairas  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  90 
papiar  aat  ImprimAa  sont  filmte  an  commandant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
darniira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'imprasslon  ou  d 'illustration,  soit  par  la  iscond 
plat,  aalon  la  caa.  Tous  los  autras  axampiairas 
originaux  sont  filmto  an  commandant  par  la 
pramiAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraasion  ou  d'illustration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darnlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 


Tha  Iaat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microficha 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  ^^  (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  symbol  ▼  (moaning  "END"). 
whicfiavar  appiias. 

Mapa.  plataa.  charts,  ate.  may  ba  filntad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratios.  Thosa  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraly  includad  in  ona  axpoaura  ara  filr^ad 
baginning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornor,  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bonom.  as  many  framas  as 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagrams  illustrata  tha 
mathod: 


Un  daa  aymbolaa  suivants  spparaltra  sur  la 
darniira  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha.  salon  la 
cas:  la  symbols  -^  signifia  "A  SUIVRE",  la 
aymbola  ▼  signifia  "FIN  ". 

Las  cartaa.  planchas,  tablaaux,  ate.  pauvant  *tra 
filmte  i  daa  taux  da  rMuction  diffirants. 
Lorsqua  la  documant  ast  trap  grand  pour  ttra 
raproduit  an  un  saul  clichA,  il  ast  film*  A  partir 
da  I'angia  supiriaur  gaucha.  da  gaucha  i  droits , 
ot  da  haut  an  baa.  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'imagaa  n^caaaaira.  Las  diagrammas  suivants 
iilustrant  la  mAthoda. 


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(ANS;  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


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^M  Roctiester.  New  York        U609      USA 

^S  (716)   482 -0300 -Phone 

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ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  EDITION 

•    • 

VOLUME   18 

THE  CHRONICLES 

OF  AMERICA  SERIES 

ALLEN  JOHNSON 

EDITOR 

GERHARD  R.  LOMER 

CHARLES  W.  JEFFERYS 

ASSISTANT  EDITORS 


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PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD 
SOUTHWEST 

A  CHRONICLE  OF  THE 

DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND 

BY  CONSTANCE  LINDSAY  SKINNER 


NEW   HAVEN:    YALE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

TORONTO:    GLASGOW,    BROOK    &    CO. 

LONDON:    HUMPHREY    MILFORD 

OXFORD     UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

1919 


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Copi^ht.  1919.  ty  YaU  Vnner^y 


Press 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

This  narrative  is  founded  largely  on  original 
sources — on  the  writings  and  journals  of  pioneers 
and  contemporary  observers,  such  as  Doddridge 
and  Adair,  and  on  the  public  documents  of  the 
period  as  printed  in  the  Colonial  Records  and  in 
the  American  Archives.  But  tlie  author  is,  never- 
theless, greatly  indebted  to  the  researches  of  other 
writers,  whose  works  are  cited  in  the  Bibliographi- 
cal Note.  The  author's  thanks  are  due,  also,  to 
Dr.  Archibald  Henderson,  of  the  University  of 
North  Carolina,  for  his  kindness  in  reading  the 
proofs  of  this  book  for  comparison  with  his  own 
extended  collection  of  unpublished  manuscripts 
relating  to  the  period. 

t^a     XJ*     O* 

April,  1919. 


▼ii 


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■1 


CONTKNTS 

1.    THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEKKS  Page        1 

II.    FOLKWAYS  ••        SI 

III.  THE  TRADER  M 

IV.  THE  PASSING  OF  THE  PRENCII  PERU,  7« 
V.    BOONE.  THE  WANDERER  ttO 

VI.    THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  \<n 

VII.    T-E  DARK  AND  BLOODY  viROUND  l«9 

VIII.    TENNESSEE  157 

IX,    KING'S  MOUNTAIN  ••      195 

X.    SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  <«o 

XI.    *X)ONE'S  LAST  DAYS  "      m 

BIBUOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  887 

INDEX  »      893 


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ILLUSTRATIONS 


DAMKL  BOONE 

Old  eoxravinc  after  a  (MiotinK  by  Cbetter  Hard- 
inft.  ■'holograph  in  the  cdlectiona  of  Archibald 
Hcn.i.'nwn.  Ch*pel  Hill.  N.  C.  Fronlupirrf 

THE  SOUTHERN  TRANS-APPALACHIAN 
(OrNTRY.  1740-I7IW 

Map  by  \V.  L.  (J.  Joetg.  Auiericaii  (K^uf{raphi^al 


Sot-iety. 

JOHN  SEVIER 

Miniature  attributed  to  Charle*  Wilaou  Peale. 
Photograph  in  the  collection*  of  Archibald 
Hendenon. 

ISAAC  SHELBY 

Painting  on  wood  by  Matthew  Harria  Jouett. 
owned  (1810)  by  William  R.  Shelby.  Grand 
Rapids.  Michigan.  Photograph  in  the  collec- 
tion* of  Archibald  Henderson. 

JAMES  ROBERTSON 

Portrait  by  Washington  B.  Cooper.  Nashville. 
In  the  collection  of  the  Tennessee  Historical  So- 
cieiy.  Photograph  in  the  collections  of  Archi- 
bald Henderson. 

DANIEL  BOONE 

Engraving  by  J.  B.  Longacre.  after  a  painting 
by  Cheater  Harding.  Published  in  The  Na- 
tional Portrait  GaUerii  of  DiMinguitked  Ameri- 
earn. 


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PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 


CHAPTER  I 


I 


THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEERS 

The  Ulster  Presbyterians,  or  "Scotch-Irish,"  to 
whom   history  has  ascribed    the  dominant  rdle 
among  the  pioneer  folk  of  the  Old  Southwest, 
began  their  migrations  to  America  in  the  latter 
years  of  the  seventeenth  century.    It  is  not  known 
with  certainty  precisely  when  or  where  the  first 
immigrants  of  their  race  arrived  in  this  country, 
but  soon  after  1680  they  were  to  be  found  in  several 
of  the  colonies.     It  was  not  long,  indeed,  before 
they  were  entering  in  numbers  at  the  port  of 
Philadelphia  and  were  making  Pennsylvania  the 
chief  center  of  their  activities  in  the  New  World. 
By  1726  they  had  established  settlements  in  sever- 
al counties  behind  Philadelphia.     Ten  years  later 
they  had  begun  their  great  trek  southward  through 


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«      PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  Shenandoah  Valley  of  Virginia  and  on  to  the 
Yadkin  Valley  of  North  Carolina.  There  they  met 
others  of  their  own  race  —  bold  men  like  them- 
selves, hungry  after  land  —  who  were  coming  in 
through  Charleston  and  pushing  their  way  up  the 
rivers  from  the  seacoast  to  the  "Back  Country," 
in  search  of  homes. 

These  Ulstermen  did  not  come  to  the  New  World 
as  novices  in  the  shaping  of  society;  they  had 
already  made  history.  Their  ostensible  object  in 
America  was  to  obtain  land,  but,  like  most  external 
aims,  it  was  secondary  io  a  deeper  purpose.  What 
had  sent  the  Ulstermen  to  America  was  a  passion 
for  a  whole  freedom.  They  were  lusty  men,  shrewd 
and  courageous,  zealous  to  the  death  for  an  ideal 
and  withal  so  practical  to  the  moment  in  business 
that  it  soon  came  to  be  commonly  reported  of  them 
that  "they  kept  the  Sabbath  and  everything  else 
they  could  lay  their  hands  on,"  though  it  is  but 
fair  to  them  t'  add  that  this  phrase  is  current  wher- 
ever Scots  dwell.  They  had  contested  in  Parlia- 
ment and  with  arms  for  their  own  form  of  worship 
and  for  their  civil  rights.  They  were  already  fron- 
tiersmen, trained  in  the  hardihood  and  craft  of 
border  warfare  through  years  of  guerrilla  fighting 
with  the  Irish  Celts.    They  had  pitted  and  proved 


THE  TREAD  OP  PIONEERS 


their  strength  against  a  wilderness;  they  had  re- 
claimed the  North  of  Ireland  from  desolation.  For 
tl^  time,  many  of  them  were  educated  men;  under 
the  regulations  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  every 
child  was  taught  to  read  at  an  early  age,  s.nce  no 
person  could  be  admitted  to  the  privileges  of  the 
Church  who  did  not  both  understand  and  approve 
the  Presbyterian  constitution  and  discipline.  They 
were  brought  up  on  the  Bible  and  on  the  writings 
of  their  famous  pastors,  one  of  whom,  as  early  as 
1650,  had  given  utterance  to  the  democratic  <loc- 
trine  that "  -  len  are  called  to  the  magistracy  by  the 
suffrage  of  the  people  whom  they  govern,  and  for 
.en  to  assume  unto  themselves  power  is  mere  tyr- 
anny and  unjust  usurpation."  In  subscribing  to 
this  doctrine  and  in  resisting  to  the  hilt  all  efforts 
of  successive  English  kings  to  interfere  in  the  elec- 
tion of  their  pastors,  the  Scots  of  Ulster  had  already 
declared  for  democracy. 

It  was  shortly  after  James  VI  of  Scotland  be- 
came James  I  of  England  and  while  the  English 
were  founding  Jamestown  that  the  Scots  had  first 
occupied  Ulster;  but  the  true  origin  of  the  Ulster 
Plantation  lies  further  back,  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII,  in  the  days  of  the  English  Reformation. 
In  Henry's  Irish  realm  the  Reformation,  though 


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4      PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

proclaimed  by  royal  authority,  had  never  been  ac- 
complished;  and  Henry's  more  famous  daughter. 
Elizabeth,  had  conceived  the  plan,  later  to  be  car- 
ried out  by  James,  of  planting  colonies  of  Protes- 
tants in  Ireland  to  promote  loyalty  in  that  rebellious 
land.  Six  counties,  comprising  half  a  million  acres, 
formed  the  Ulster  Plantation.    The  great  majority 
of  the  colonists  sent  thither  by  James  were  Scotch 
Lowlanders,  but  among  them  were  many  Enghsh 
and  a  smaller  number  of  Highlanders.   These  three 
peoples  from  the  island  of  Britain  brought  forth, 
through  intermarriage,  the  Ulster  Scots. 

The  reign  of  Charles  I  had  inaugurated  for  the 
Ulstermen  an  era  of  persecution.    Charles  practi- 
cally suppressed  .he  Presbyterian  religion  in  Ire- 
land. His  son,  Charles  II,  struck  at  Ireland  m  1666 
through  its  cattle  trade,  by  prohibiting  the  expor- 
tation of  bee'  .o  England  and  Scotland.  The  Navi- 
gation /  ..s,  excluding  Ireland  from  direct  trade 
with  the  colonies,  ruined  Irish  commerce,  while 
Corporation  Acts  and  Test  Acts  requiring  con- 
formity with  the  practices  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land bore  heavily  on  the  Ulster  Presbyterians. 

It  was  largely  by  refugees  from  religious  perse- 
cution that  America  in  the  beginning  was  colo- 
nized.   But  religious  persecution  wasonly  oneof  the 


THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEERS  5 

influences  which  shaped  the  course  and  formed  the 
character  of  the  Ulster  Scots.    In  Ulster,  whither 
they  had  originally  been  transplanted  by  James  to 
found  a  loyal  province  in  the  midst  of  the  King's 
enemies,  they  had  done  their  work  too  well  and 
had  waxed  too  powerful  for  the  comfort  of  later 
monarchs.    The  first  attacks  upon  them  struck  at 
their  religion;  but  the  subsequent  legislative  acts 
which  successively  ruined  the  woolen  trade,  barred 
nonconformists  from  public  office,  stifled  Irish 
commerce,  pronounced  non-Episcopal   marriages 
irregular,  and  instituted  heavy  taxation  and  high 
rentals  for  the  land  their  fathers  had  made  produc- 
tive—these were  blows  dealtchiefly  for  the  political 
and  commercial  ends  of  favored  classes  in  England. 
These  attacks,  aimed  through  his  religious  con- 
science at  the  sources  of  his  livelihood,  made  the 
Ulster  Scot  perforce  what  he  was  —  a  zealot  as  a 
citizen  and  a  zealot  as  a  merchant  no  less  than 
as  a  Presbyteiian.     Thanks  to  his  persecutors,  he 
made  a  religion  of  everything  he  undertook  and  re- 
garded his  civil  rights  as  divine  rights.     Thus  out 
of  persecution  emerged  a  type  of  man  who  was 
high-principled  and  narrow,  strong  and  violent,  as 
tenacious  of  his  own  rights  as  he  w«s  blind  often  to 
the  rights  of  others,  acquisitive  yet  self-sacr'^^ing, 


'  1 

'i 


6      PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
but  most  of  all  fearless,  confident  of  his  own  powei 
determined  to  have  and  to  hold. 

Twenty  thousand  Ulstermen,  it  is  estimated,  lef 
Ireland  for  America  in  the  first  three  decades  o 
the  eighteenth  century.    More  than  six  thousand  o 
them  are  known  to  have  entered  Pennsylvania  it 
1729  alone,  and  twenty  years  later  they  numberec 
one-quarter  of  that  colony's  population.    During 
the  five  years  preceding  the  Revolutionary  Wai 
more  than  thirty  thousand  Ulstermen  crossed  the 
ocean  and  arrived  in  America  just  in  time  and 
•n  just  the  right  frame  of  mind  to  return  King 
George's  compliment  in  kind,  by  helping  to  deprive 
him  of  his  American  estates,  a  domain  very  much 
larger  than  the  acres  of  Ulster.    They  fully  justified 
the  fears  of  the  good  bishop  who  wrote  Lord  Dart- 
mouth. Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  that  he  trem- 
bled  for  the  peace  of  the  King's  overseas  realm, 
since  these  thousands  of  "phanatical  and  hungry 
Republicans"  had  sailed  for  America. 

The  Ulstermen  who  entered  by  Charieston  were 
known  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  tidewater  regions 
as  the  "Scotch-Irish."  Those  who  came  from 
the  north,  lured  southward  by  the  offer  of  cheap 
lands,  werecalled  the  "Pennsylvania  Irish."  Both 
were,  however,  of  the  same  race -a  race  twice 


THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEERS  7 

expatriated,  first  from  Scotland  and  then  from  Ire- 
land, and  stripped  of  all  that  it  had  won  through- 
out more  than  a  century  of  persecution.    To  these 
exiles  the  Back  Country  of  North  Carolina,  with 
its  cheap  and  even  free  tracts  lyin;    far  from  the 
seat  of  government,  must  have  seemed  not  only 
the  Land  of  Promise  but  the  Land  of  Last  Chance. 
Here  they  must  strike  their  roots  into  the  sod  with 
such  interlocking  strength  that  no  cataclysm  of 
tyranny  should  ever  dislodge  them  —  or  they  must 
accept  the  fate  dealt  out  to  them  by  their  former 
persecutors  and  become  a  tribe  of  nomads  jind 
serfs.     But  to  these  Ulster  immigrants  such  a 
choice  was  no  choice  at  all.    They  knew  themselves 
strong  men,  who  had  made  the  most  of  opportunity 
despite  almost  superhuman  obstacles.   The  drum- 

mingoftheirfeetalongthebanksofth«?Shenandoah, 
or  up  the  rivers  from  Charleston,  and  on  through 
the  broad  sweep  of  the  Yadkin  Valley,  was  a  con- 
quering people's  challenge  to  the  Wilderness  which 
lay  sleeping  like  an  unready  sentinel  at  the  gates 
of  their  Future. 

It  is  maintained  still  by  many,  however  often 
disputed,that  th*^  T  Jistermen  were  the  first  to  declare 
for  American  Independence,  as  in  the  Old  Country 
they  were  the  first  to  demand  the  .separation  of 


it 


!> 


,1 

h 
i,  "i 


8      PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
Church  and  State.    A  Declaration  of  Independ- 
«ice  IS  said  to  have  been  dra^      up  and  signed  in 
Mecklenburg  County.  North  Carolina,  on  May  20. 
1775.'    Howeverthatmaybe.itiscertainth     '     se 
Mecklenburg    Protestants    had    receivec    ^eoial 
schooling  in  the  doctrine  of  independence.     They 
had  m  their  midst  for  eight  years  (1758-6«)  the 
Reverend  Alexander  Craighead,  a   Presbyterian 
minister  who.  for  his  ^republican  doctrines"  ex- 
pressed in  a  pamphlet,  had  been  disowned  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Synod  acting  on  the  Governor's  pro- 
test,  and  so  persecuted  in  Virginia  that  he  had 
at  last  fled  to  the  North  Carolina  Back  Country 
ITiere.  during  the  remaining  years  of  his  lite,  as 
the  sole  preacher  and  teacher  in  the  settlements  be- 
tween the  Yadkin  and  the  Catawba  rivershe  found 
willing  soil  in  which  to  sow  the  seeds  of  Liberty. 

There  was  another  branch  of  the  Scottish  race 
which  helped  to  people  the  Back  Country.  The 
Highlanders,  whose  loyalty  to  their  oath  made 
^em  fight  on  the  King's  side  in  the  Revolutionary 
War,  have  been  somewhat  overlooked  in  history 
Tradition,  handed  down  among  the  transplanted 


I 


THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEERS  0 

clans  —  who,  for  the  most  part,  spoke  only  Gaelic 
for  a  generation  and  wrote  nothing  —  and  latterly 
recorded  by  one  or  two  of  their  descendants,  sup- 
plies us  with  all  we  are  now  able  to  learn  of  the 
earJy  coming  of  the  Gaels  to  Carolina.    It  would 
seem  that  their  first  immigration  to  America  in 
small  bands  took  place  after  the  suppression  of 
theJacobitc  rising  in  1715  —  when  Highlanders  fled 
in  numbers  also  to  France  —  for  by  1729  there  was 
a  settlement  of  them  on  the  Cape  Fear  Ri\   :.    We 
know,  too,  that  in  1748  it  was  charged  against 
Gabriel  Johnston,   Governor  of  North   Carolina 
from  1734  to  1752,  that  he  had  shown  no  joy  over 
the  King's  "glorious  victory  of  Culloden  "  and  that 
"  he  had  appointed  one  William  McGregor,  who  had 
been  in  the  Rebellion  in  the  year  1715  a  Justice  of 
the  Peace  during  the  last  Rebellion  [1745]  and  was 
not  himself  without  suspicion  of  disaffection  to  His 
Majesty's  Government. "    It  is  indeed  possible  that 
Gabriel  Johnston,  formerly  a  professor  at  St.  An- 
drew's University,  had  himself  not  always  been  a 
stranger  to  the  kilt.    He  induced  large  numbers  of 
Highlanders  to  come  to  America  and  probably  in- 
fluenced the  second  George  to  moderate  his  treat- 
ment of  the  vanquished  Gaels  in  the  Old  Country 
and  permit  their  emigration  to  the  New  World. 


'4 


I 


II 


ij 


10    WONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

In  contrast  with  the  Uktennen.  whose  secular 
.deals  were  dictated  by  the  forms  of  their  Church, 
theseScots  adhered  still  to  the  tribal  or  clan  system, 
although  they,  too,  in  the  majority,  were  Presby. 
tenans.  w.th  a  minority  of  Roman  Catholics  and 
Episcopalians.     In  the  Scotch  Highlands  they  had 
occupied  small  holdings  on  the  land  under  the  sway 
of  thejr  chief,  or  Head  of  the  Clan,  to  whom  they 
were  bound  by  blood  and  fealty  but  to  whom  they 
paid  no  rentals.    The  position  of  the  Head  of  the 
Clan  was  hereditar;,.  but  no  heir  was  bold  enough 
to  step  forward  into  that  position  until  he  had  per- 
formed  some  deed  of  worth.    They  were  principally 
herders,  their  chief  stock  being  the  famous  small 
black  cattle  of  the  Highlands.     Their  wars  with 
each  other  were  cattle  raids.    Only  in  war.  how- 

ever.didtheGaellayhandsonhisneighbor'sgoods. 
There  ^ere  no  highwaymen   and   housebreaker, 
in  the  Highlands.    No  Highland  mansion,  cot.  or 
Darn  was  ever  locked.    Theft  and  the  breaking  of 
an  oath    sins  against  man's  honor,  were  held  in 
such  abhorrence  that  no  one  guilty  of  them  could 
remain  among  his  clansmen  in  the  beloved  glens. 
Ihese  Highlanders  were  a  race  of  tall,  robust  men. 
who  lived  simply  and  frugally  and  slept  on  the 
heath  among  their  flocks  in  all  weathers,  with  no 


j^-~ 


THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEERS 


II 


other  cuvering  from  ruin  and  .snow  than  thi'ir 
plaidie8.  It  is  repo'^ed  of  the  Laird  of  Keppoch, 
who  was  leading  hiti  clan  to  war  in  winter  time,  that 
his  men  were  .iivided  as  to  the  propriety  of  follow- 
ing him  further  because  he  rolled  u  snowball  to  rest 
his  head  upon  when  he  lay  down.  "Now  .cdespair 
of  victory,"  they  said,  "since  our  leader  has  become 
so  effeminate  he  cannot  sleep  without  a  pillow!"' 
The  "King's  glorious  victory  of  Culloden"  was 
followed  by  a  policy  of  extermination  carried  on 
by  the  orders  and  under  the  personal  direction  of 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  When  King  George  at 
last  restrained  his  son  from  his  orgy  of  blood,  he 
offered  the  Gaels  their  lives  and  exile  to  America 
on  condition  of  their  taking  the  full  oath  of  alle- 
giance. The  majority  accepted  his  terms,  for  not 
only  were  their  lives  forfeit  but  their  crops  und 
cattle  had  been  destroyed  and  the  holdings  on 
which  their  ancestors  had  lived  for  many  centuries 
taken  from  them.  The  descriptions  of  the  scenes 
attending  their  leave-taking  of  the  hills  and  glens 
they  loved  with  such  passionate  fervor  are  among 
the  most  pathetic  in  history.  Strong  men  who  had 
met  the  ravage  of  a  brutal  sword  withoul  weakening 

'  MacLeaD,  An  Historical  Account  of  the  Settlement  of  Scotch  High- 
landert  in  America. 


H 

I-; 


i\ 


18    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

abandoned  thc-nselve*  to  the  agony  of  sorrow 
They  kissed*'     walls  of  their  houses.    They  flung 
themselv  .  ^.,  the  ground  and  embraced  the  sod 
upon  which  they  had  waJkinJ  in  frwKJom.    They 
calltHj  their  broken  farewells  to  the  peaks  and  lochs 
of  thr  lan.l  Ihey  were  never  again  to  see;  and,  as 
they  turned  their  backs  and  filed  down  through  the 
passes,  their  pipers  played  the  dirge  for  the  dead. 
Such  was  the  character,  such  the  deep  feeling, 
of  the  race  which  entered  North  CaroUna  from  the' 
coast  and  pushed  up  into  the  wilderness  about  ♦he 
headwaters  of  Cape  Fear  River.    Tradition  indi- 
cates that  these  hillsmen  sought  the  interior  be- 
cause the  grass  and  pea  vine  which  overgrew  the 

innercountrystretching  towards  themountainspro- 
vided  excellent  fodder  for  the  cattle  which  some  of 
the  chiefs  are  said  to  have  brought  with  them. 
These  Gaelic  herders,  nerhaps  in  negligible  num^ 
bers,  were  in  the  Yadkin  Valley  before  17S0,  poi- 
sibly  even  ten  years  earlier.    In  1739  Neil  MacNeill 
of  Kini/re  brought  over  a  shipload  of  Gaels  to 
rejoin  his  kinsman,  Hector  MacNeill,  called  Bluff 
Hector  from  his  residence  near  the  bluffs  at  Cross 
Creek,  now  Payetteville.  Some  of  these  immigrants 
went  on  to  the  Yadkin,  we  are  told,  to  unite  with 
others  of  their  clan  who  had  been  for  some  time  in 


II     \ 


I 


THE  TREAD  OP  PIONEERS  IS 

that  diatrict.  llie  exact  time  of  the  first  High- 
kuider  on  the  Yadkin  cannot  be  ascertained,  aa 
there  were  no  court  records  aTul  the  oSBces  of  the 
land  companies  were  not  then  open  for  the  sale 
of  these  remote  regions.  But  by  1753  there  were 
not  less  than  lour  thousand  Gaels  in  Cumbt>rland 
County,  where  they  occupied  the  chief  inagisteritil 
pasts;  and  they  were  u]rc>ady  spreading  over  llic 
lands  now  comprised  within  Moons  Anson,  Rich- 
mond, Robeson,  Bladen,  and  Sampson  counties. 
In  thcje  counties  Gaelic  was  as  commonly  heard 
ns  English. 

In  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  Revolu- 
tion and  even  in  1776  itself  they  came  in  increasing 
numbers.  They  knew  nothing  uf  the  smoldering 
fire  just  about  to  break  into  flames  in  the  country 
of  their  choice,  but  the  Royal  Governor,  Josiah 
Martin,  knew  that  Highland  arms  would  soon  be 
needed  by  H's  Majesty.  He  knew  something  of 
Highland  honor,  too;  for  he  would  not  let  the 
Gaels  proceed  after  their  landing  until  they  had 
bound  themselves  by  oath  to  support  the  Govern- 
ment of  King  George.  So  it  was  that  the  unfor- 
tunate Highlanders  found  themselves,  according 
to  their  strict  code  of  honor,  forced  to  wield  arms 
against  the  very  Americans  who  hud  received  and 


ri  S 


fl 

if 


t 


14    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
befriended  them— and  for  the  crowned  brother 
of  a  prince  whose  name  is  execratetl  to  this  day  in 
Highland  song  and  story ! 

They  were  led  by  Allan  MacDonald  of  Kings- 
borough;  and  tradition  gives  us  a  stirring  picture 
of  Allan's  wife  — the  famous  Flora  MacDonald, 
who  in  Scotland  had  protected  the  Young  Pre- 
tend<.r  in  his  flight— making  an  impassioned  ad- 
dress in  Gaelic  to  the  Highland  soldiers  and  urging 
them  on  to  die  for  honor's  sake.    When  this  High- 
land  force  was  conquered  by  the  Americans,  the 
large  majority  willingly  bound  themselves  not  to 
fight  further  against  the  American  cause  and  were 
set  at  liberty.    Many  of  them  felt  that,  by  offering 
their  lives  to  the  swords  of  the  Americans,  they 
had  canceled  their  obligation  to  King  George  and 
were  now  free  to  draw  their  swords  again  and, 
this  time,  in  accordance  with  their  sympathies;  so 
they  went  over  to  the  American  side  and  fought 
gallantly  for  independence. 


V 
I 


Although  the  brave  glory  of  this  pioneer  age 
shines  so  brightly  on  the  Lion  Rampant  of  Cale- 
donia,  not  to  Scots  alone  does  that  whole  glory 
belong.  The  second  largest  raci.il  stream  which 
flowed   into  the  Back  Country  of  Virginia  and 


I 


\:     \ 


V     f' 


THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEERS  15 

North  Carolina  was  German.    Most  of  these  Ger- 
mans went  down   from  Pennsylvania  and   were 
generally  called  "Pennsylvania  Dutch,"   an    in- 
correct   rendering   of       ctnuylvanische    Deutsche. 
The   upper  ShenanU^ah    Vailt-y    ivas   settled   al- 
most entirely  by  Ge.  juviis.   They  were  members  of 
the  Lutheran,  Germau  liciormed,  and  Moravian 
churches.    The  cause  which  sent  vast  numbers  of 
this  sturdy  people  across  the  ocean,  during  the  first 
dozen  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  reli- 
gious persecution.     By  statute  and  by  sword  the 
Roman  Catholic  powers  of  Austria  sought  to  wipe 
out  the  Salzburg  Lutherans  and  the  Moravian  fol- 
lowers of  John  Huss.     In  that  region  of  the  Rhine 
country  known  in  those  days  as  the  German  Pal- 
atinate, now  a  part  of  Bavaria,  Protestants  were 
being  massacred  by  the  troops  of  Louis  of  France, 
then  engaged  in  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succes- 
sion (1701-18)  and  in  the  zealous  effort  to  extir- 
pate heretics  from  the  soil  of  Europe.    In  1708,  by 
proclamation.  Good  Queen  Anne  offered  protec- 
tion to  the  persecuted  Palatines  and  invited  them 
to  her  dominions.    Twelve  thousand  of  them  went 
to  England,  where  they  were  warmly  received  by 
the  English.    But  it  was  no  slight  task  to  settle 
twelve  thousand  immigrants  of  an  alien  speech  in 


■i 


Mi 


I 

s 


1     , 

•'1    J 


I 


16  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
England  and  enable  them  to  become  independent 
and  self-supporting.  A  better  solution  of  their 
problem  lay  in  the  Western  World.  The  Germans 
needed  homes  and  the  Queen's  overseas  dominions 
needed  colonists.  They  were  settled  at  first  along 
the  Hudson,  and  eventually  many  of  them  took 
up  lands  in  the  fertile  valley  of  the  Mohawk. 

For  fifty  years  or  more  German  and  Austrian 
Protestants  poured  into  America.  In  Pennsyl- 
vania their  influx  averaged  about  fifteen  hundred 
a  year,  and  that  colony  became  the  distributing 
center  for  the  German  race  in  America.  By  1727, 
Adam  MUller  and  his  little  company  had  estab- 
lished the  first  white  settlement  in  the  Valley  of  Vir- 
ginia. In  1732  Joist  Heydt  went  south  from  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  settled  on  the  Opequan  Creek  at 
or  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Winchester. 

The  life  of  Count  Zinzf-ndorf,  called  "the  Apos- 
tle, "  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Moravian  immi- 
grants, glows  like  a  star  out  of  those  dark  and 
troublous  times.  Of  high  birth  and  gentle  nurture, 
he  forsook  whatever  of  ease  his  station  promised 
him  and  fitted  himself  for  evangelical  work.  In 
1741  he  visited  the  Wyoming  Valley  to  bring  hk 
religion  to  the  Delawares  and  Shawanoes.  He  was 
not  of  those  picturesque  Captains  of  the  Lord  who 


«,    i 


THE  TREAD  OP  PIONEERS  17 

bore  their  muskets  on  their  shoulders  when  they 
went  forth  to  preach.     Armored  only  with  the 
shield  of  faith,  the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the 
sword  of  the  spirit,  his  feet  "shod  with  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  gospel  of  peace,"  he  went  out  into  the 
country  of  these  bloodthirsty  tribes  and  told  them 
that  he  had  come  to  them  in  their  darkness  to 
teach  the  love  of  the  Christ  which  lighteth  the 
world.     The  Indians  received  him  suspiciously. 
One  day  while  he  sat  in  his  tent  writing,  some 
Delawares  drew  near  to  slay  him  and  were  about 
to  strike  when  they  saw  two  deadly  snakes  crawl 
in  from  the  opposite  side  of  the  tent,  move  directly 
towards  the  Apostle,  and  pass  harmlessly  over  his 
body.     Thereafter  they  regarded  him  as  under 
spiritual  protection.     Indeed  so  widespread  was 
his  good  fame  among  the  tribes  that  for  some  years 
all  Moravian  settlements  along  the  borders  were 
unmolested.    Pair  vages  passed  through  on 

their  way  to  war  w.  jmy  bands  or  to  raid  the 

border,  but  for  the  sake  of  one  consecrated  spirit, 
whom  they  had  seen  death  avoid,  they  spared 
the  li"..s  and  goods  of  his  fellow  believers.  When 
Zinzendorf  departed  a  year  later,  his  mantle  fell 
on  David  Zeisberger,  who  lived  the  love  he  taught 
for  over  fifty  years  an  '    anverted  many  savages. 


i 


!( 


n 


\l 


i 


11 


I'll 


I 


V 


if  ■ 

F 


18    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Zeisberger  was  taken  before  the  Governor  and 
army  heads  at  Philadelphia,  who  had  only  too  good 
reason  to  be  suspicious  of  priestly  counsels  in  the 
tents  of  Shem:  but  he  was  able  to  impress  white 
men  no  less  than  simple  savages  with  the  nobility 
of  the  doctrine  he  had  learned  from  the  Apostle. 

In  1751  the  Moravian  Brotherhood  purchased 
one  hundred  thousand  acres  in  North  Carolina 
from  Lord  Granville.  Bishop  Spangenburg  was 
commissioned  to  survey  this  large  acreage,  which 
was  situated  in  the  present  county  of  Forsyth  east 
of  the  Yadkin,  and  which  is  historically  listed  as 
the  Wachovia  Tract.  In  1753,  twelve  Brethren 
left  the  Moravian  settlements  of  Bethlehem  and 
Nazareth,  in  Pennsylvania,  and  journeyed  south- 
ward to  begin  the  founding  of  a  colony  on  their  new 
land.  Brother  Adam  Grube,  one  of  the  twelve, 
kept  a  diary  of  the  events  of  this  expedition.' 

Honor  to  whom  honor  is  due.  We  have  paid  it, 
in  sc_ae  measure,  to  the  primitive  Gaels  of  the  High- 
lands for  their  warrior  strength  and  their  fealty, 
and  to  the  enlightened  Scots  of  Ulster  for  their  en- 
terprise and  for  their  sacrifice  unto  blood  that 
free  conscience  and  just  laws  might  promote  the 

■  This  diary  is  printed  in  full  in  Travelt  in  the  American  Cdonies, 
edited  by  N.  D.  Mereness. 


Hi 


THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEERS  19 

progfi'ss  and  sufegiianl   the  intercoursf  of   their 
kind.     Now  let  us  take  up  for  u  moment  Brother 
Grube's  Journal  even  us  we  welcome,  perhaps  the 
more  gratefully,  the  mild  light  of  evening  after  the 
flooding  sun,  or  as  our  hearts,  when  too  strongly 
stirred  by  the  deeds  of  men,  turn  for  rest  to  tb- 
serene  faith  and  the  naive  speech  of  little  children. 
The  twelve,  we  learn,  were  under  the  leadership 
of  one  of  their  number.  Brother  Gottlob.    Their 
earliest  alarms  on  the  march  were  not  caused,  as 
we  might  expect,  by  anticipations  of  the  painted 
Cherokee,  but  by  encounters  with  the  strenuous 
"Irish."    One  of  these  came  and  laid  himself  to 
sleep  beside  the  Brethren's  camp  fire  on  their  first 
night  out,  after  they  had  sung  their  evening  hynm 
and  eleven  had  stretchetl  themselves  on  the  ej  rth 
for  slumber,  while  Brother  Gottlob,  their  leader, 
hanging  his  hammock  between  two  trees,  ascend- 
ed—not only  in  spirit  — a  little  higher  than  his 
charges,  and  "rested  well  in  it."  Though  the  alarm- 
ing Irishman  did  not  disturb  them,  the  Brethren's 
doubts  of  that  race  continued,  for  Brother  Grube 
wrote  on  the  14th  of  October:  "About  four  in  the 
morning  we  set   up  our   tent,  going  four  miles 
beyond  Carl  Isles  [Carlisle,  seventeen  miles  south- 
west of  Harrisburg]  so  as  not  to  be  too  near  the 


u 


'f ' 


i\ 


1 1 


u 

f 


U    » 


t 

I 


20    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Irish  Presbyterians.    After  breakfast  the  Brethren 

shaved  and  then  we  rested  under  our  tent.  .  .  . 

People  who  were  staying  at  the  Tavern  came  to  see 

what  kind  of  folk  we  were.  ...  Br  Gottlob  held 

the  evening  service  and  then  we  lay  down  around 

our  cheerful  fire,  and  Br  Gottlob  in  his  hammock." 

Two  other  jottings  give  us  a  racial  kaleidoscope  of 

the  settlers  and  wayfarers  of  that  time.    On  one 

day  the  Brethren  bought  "some  hay  from  a  Swiss," 

later  "some  kraut  from  a  German  which  tasted 

very  good  to  us";  and  presently  "an  Englishman 

came  by  and  drank  a  cup  of  tea  with  us  and  was 

very  grateful  for  it."    Frequently  the  little  band 

paused  while  some  of  the  Brethren  went  oflf  to  the 

farms  along  the  route  to  help  "cut  hay."     These 

kindly  acts  were  usually  repaid  with  gifts  of  food 

or  produce. 

One  day  while  on  the  march  they  halted  at  a 
tavern  and  farm  in  Shenandoah  Valley  kept  by  a 
man  whose  name  Brother  Grube  wrote  down  as 
"Severe."  Since  we  know  that  Brother  Grube's 
spelling  of  names  other  than  German  requires 
editing,  we  venture  to  hazard  a  guess  that  the 
name  he  attempted  to  set  down  as  it  sounded  to 
him  was  Sevier.  And  we  wonder  if,  in  his  brief 
sojourn,  he  saw  a  lad  of  eight  years,  slim,  tall,  and 


I 


I; 


THE  TREAD  OF  PIONEERS  n 

blond,  with  daring  and  mischievous  blue  eyes,  and 
a  certain  curve  of  the  hps  that  threatened  havoc 
in  the  hearts  of  both  sexes  when  he  should  be  a 
man  and  reach  out  with  swift  hands  and  reckless 
will  for  his  desires.    If  he  saw  this  lad,  he  beheld 
John  Sevier,  later  to  become  one  of  the  most  pic- 
turesque and  beloved  heroes  of  the  Old  Southwest. 
Hardships  abounded  on  the  Brethren's  journey 
but  faith  and  the  Christian's  joy,  which  no  man 
taketh  from   him,   met  and  surmounted   them. 
"Three  and  a  half  miles  beyond,  the  road  forked 
•      .  We  took  the  right  hand  road  but  found  no 
water  for  ten  miles.    It  grew  late  and  we  had  to 
drive  five  miles  into  the  night  to  find  a  stopping- 
place."  Two  of  the  Brethren  went  ahead  "to  seek 
out  the  road"  through  the  darkened  wilderness. 
There  were  rough  hills  in  the  way;  and,  the  horses 
bemg  exhausted,  "Brethren  had   to  help  push  " 
But,  m  due  season,  "Br  Nathanael  held  evening 
prayer  and  then  we  slept  in  the  care  of  Jesus  " 
with  Brother  Gottlob  as  usual  in  his  hammock. 
Ihreedays  later  the  record  runs:  "Toward  even- 
ing we  saw  Jeams  River,  the  road  to  it  ran  down 
so  very  steep  a  hill  that  we  fastened  a  small  tree 
to  the  back  of  our  wagon,  locked  the  wheels  and 
the  Brechren  held  back  by  the  tree  with  all  their 


.U 


I 


:^ 


'J 


f 


I 


I 


^1 


•i    i 


9fi  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
might."  Even  then  the  wagon  went  down  so  fast 
that  most  of  the  Brethren  lost  their  footing  and 
rolled  and  tumbled  pell-mell.  But  Faith  makes 
little  of  such  mishaps:  "No  harm  was  done  and  we 
thanked  the  Lord  that  he  had  so  graciously  pro- 
tected us,  for  it  looked  dangerous  and  we  thought 
at  times  that  it  could  not  possibly  be  done  with- 
out accident  but  we  got  down  safely  ...  we 
were  all  very  tired  and  sleepy  and  let  the  angels 
be  our  guard  during  the  night."  Rains  fell  in 
torrents,  making  streams  almost  impassable  and 
drenching  the  little  band  to  the  skin.  The  ham- 
mock was  empty  one  night,  for  they  had  to  spend 
the  dark  hours  trench-digging  about  their  tent  to 
keep  it  from  being  washed  away.  Two  days  later 
(the  10th  of  November)  the  weather  cleared  and 
"  we  spent  most  of  the  day  drying  our  blankets  and 
mending  and  darning  our  stockings."  They  also 
bought  supplies  from  settlers  who,  as  Brother 
Grube  observed  without  irony, 

arc  glad  wc  have  to  remain  here  so  long  and  that  it 
iiieans  money  for  them.  In  the  afternoon  we  held  a 
little  Lovefeast  and  rested  «»ur  souls  in  the  loving  sacri- 
fice of  Jesus,  wishing  for  beloved  Brethren  in  Bethlehem 
and  that  they  and  we  might  live  ever  close  to  Him.  . 
Nov.  16.  We  rose  early  to  ford  the  river.  The  bank 
was  so  steep  that  we  hung  a  tree  behind  the  wagon. 


|i  f 


(   i 


THE  TREAD  OP  PIONEERS  «s 

fastening  it  i„  .uch  a  way  that  we  could  quickly  release 
It  ft'hen  the  wagon  reached  the  water.  The  current  was 
very  .w.ft  ,  the  lead  hor.se.,  we.  carried  60T.Z 
w  th  .t.  The  water  ju.st  missed  running  into  the  wagon 
but  we  came  safely  to  the  other  bank,  which  however 
^e  c^uld  not  climl.  but  had  to  take  half  the  things  out 
o  .1  Lr*"""'  '"  ""^l'"  '^'  "'''*'  ""  ^hich  we  couhi 
brought  our  urk  again  '    dry  land. 

On   the  cveninK  of      ..   17th  of  November   »he 
twelve  arrived  safely  on  their  land  on  the  "Etkin  " 
(Yadkin),  having  been  .six  week.s  on  the  march 
Thev  found  with  joy  that.  a«  ever,  the  Ix,rd  had 
P'^-       ^  ^°''  th^"'-     This  time  the  gift  wa.s  n  dv- 
serted  cabin,  "large  enough  that  we  could  all  lie 
down  around  the  walls.     We  at  once  made  prep- 
aration for  a  little  Lovefeast  «od  rejoiced  heartilv 
with  one  another." 

In  the  deserted  log  cabin,  which,  to  their  faith 
seemed  as  one  of  those  mansions  "not  built  with 
hands"  and  descended  miraculously  from  the  hea- 
vens, they  held  their  Lovefeast.  while  wolves 
padded  and  howled  a.,out  the  walhs;  and  in  that 
Pentacostal  hour  the  tongue  of  fire  descended  upon 
Brother  Gottlob.  so  that  he  made  a  new  song  unto 
the  Lord.  Who  shall  venture  to  say  it  is  not  better 
worth  preserving  than  many  a  classic? 


/ 


mW 


.   f 


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H 


24     PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOLTHWEST 

We  hold  arrival  Lovefeast  here 

In  Carolina  laud, 
A  company  of  Brethren  true, 

A  little  Pilgrim-Band, 
Called  by  the  Lord  to  be  of  those 

Who  through  the  whole  world  go. 
To  bear  Him  witness  everywhere 

And  nought  but  Jesus  know. 

Then,  we  an-  told,  the  Brethren  lay  down  (o  rest 
and  "Br  Gottloh  hung  his  hammock  above  our  heads  " 
-as  was  most  fitting  on  this  of  all  nights;  for  is 
not  the  Poet's  place  always  just  a  little  nearer  to 
the  stars? 


i\ 


The  pioneers  did  not  always  travel  in  groups. 
There  were  families  who  set  off  alone.  One  of  these 
now  claims  our  attention,  for  there  was  a  lad  in  this 
family  w) ,  > ,  name  and  deeds  were  to  sound  like 
a  ballad  of  romance  from  out  the  dusty  pages  of 
history.    This  family's  name  was  Boone. 

Neither  Scots  nor  Germans  can  claim  Daniel 
Boone;  he  was  in  blood  a  blend  of  English  and 
Welsh;  in  character  wholly  English.  His  grand- 
father George  Boone  was  born  in  1666  in  the  ham- 
let of  Steak,  near  Exeter  in  Devonshire.  George 
Boone  was  a  weaver  by  trade  and  a  Quaker  by 
religion.   In  England  in  his  time  the  Quakers  were 


I. 


W 


THE  TREAD  OP  I'lONEERS  95 

oppressed,  and  George  Boone  therefor   ,ought  in- 
formaUon  of  William  Penn.  his  corehgionist.  re- 
garding the  colony  which  Penn  had  estabhshed  in 
America.    In  17Ii>  he  sent  his  three  elder  children, 
George,  Sarah,  and  Scjuire.  lo  spy  out  the  land. 
Sarah  and  Squire  remained  in  Pennsylvania,  while 
their  brother  returned  to  Lngland  with  glowing  re- 
ports.   On  August  17, 1717.  (leorge  Boone,  his  wife, 
and  the  rest  of  his  children  journeyed  to  Bristol  and 
sailed  for  Philadelphia,  arriving  there  on  the  10th 
of  October.    The  Boones  went  first  to  Abingdon, 
theQuakerfarmers'community.  Later  they  moved 
to  thenorthwestern  frontier  hamlet  of  North  Wales, 
a  Welsh  community  which,  a  few  years  previously,* 
had  turned  Quaker.    Sarah  Boone  married  a  Ger- 
man named  Jacob  Stover,  who  had  settled  in  Oley 
Township,  Berks  County.     In  1718  George  Boone 
took  up  four  hundred  acres  in  Oley.  or,  to  be  exact, 
in  the  subdivision  later  called  E.xeter,  and  there  he 
lived  in  his  log  cabin  until  1744,  when  he  died  at 
the  age  of  seventy-eight.     He  left  eight  children, 
fifty-two  grandchildren,  and  ten  great-grandchil- 
dren, seventy  descendants  in  all  —  English,  Ger- 
man, Welsh,  and  Scotch-Irish  blended  into  one 
family  of  Americans. ' 

'  R.  G.  Thwaites,  Daniel  Boone,  p.  5. 


!) 


>s 


'^  ( 


Y    ! 


«6    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Among  the  WpImIi   QuakiTM  was  a  family  of 
Morgans.     In  17«0  Squire  Boono  marriH  Sarah 
Morgan.    Ten  years  later  he  ohtuine<l  250  acres  in 
Oley  on  Owatin  Creek,  eight  miles  southeast  of  the 
present  city  of  Reading;  and  here,  in  1784,  Daniel 
Boone  was  born,  the  fourth  son  and  sixth  child  of 
Squire  and  Sarah  Morgan  Boone.    Daniel  Boone 
therefore  wa.s  a  son  of  th««  frontier.    In  his  child- 
hood h«'  became  familiar  with  hunters  and  with 
Indians,   for  even    the   red    men    came  often   in 
friendly  fashion  to  his  grandfather's  hou.se.    Squire 
Boone  enlarged  his  farm  by  thrift.     He  continued 
at  his  trade  of  :veavingf  and  kept  five  or  six  looms 
going,  making  homespun  cloth  for  the  market  and 
his  neighbors. 

Daniel's  father  owne<l  grazing  grounds  several 
miles  north  of  the  homestead  and  each  sea.sori  he 
sent  hi.s  stock  to  the  range.  Sarah  Boone  and  her 
little  Daniel  drove  the  cows.  From  early  spritig 
till  lale  autumn,  mother  and  .son  livetl  in  ii  rustic 
cabin  ulone  on  the  frontier.  A  rude  <lairy  house 
stood  over  a  cool  spring,  and  here  Sarah  Boone 
made  her  butter  and  chee.se.  I>aniel,  agefl  ten  at 
this  time,  watched  the  herds;  at  sunset  he  drove 
them  to  the  cabin  for  milking,  and  locked  them  in 
the  cowpens  at  night. 


n 


ThE  TREAD  OP  PIONEERS  <7 

He  wiiM  not  aUowotl  fimirms  at  that  hk*.  s,)  he 
shar>od  for  hitn.self  u  weapon  that  svrvvfl  hUu  wi-II. 
This  was  a  slender  smoothly  shavecj  .sapling  with 
a  small  bunch  of  gnarled  roots  at  one  end.    So 
expert  was  he  in  the  launching  of  this  primitive 
spear  that  he  easily  brought  down  birds  and  small 
game.  When  he  reached  his  twelfth  year,  his  father 
bought  him  a  rifle;  an<l  he  soon  bwame  a  crack 
shot.    A  year  later  we  find  him  setting  off  (.n  the 
autumn  hui.t  —  after  driving  the  cattle  in  for  the 
winter  — with  all  the  keenness  and  courage  of  a 
man  twice  his  thirteen  years.     His  rifle  enabled 
him  to  return  with  meat  for  the  family  and  skins 
to  be  traded  in  Philadelphia.    When  he  was  four- 
teen  his  brother  Sam  married  Sarah  Day,  an  in- 
telligent  young   Quakeress   who   tock    a    special 
interest  in  her  young  brother-in-law  aii<i  laught 
him  "the  rudiments  of  three  R's." 

The  Boones  were  prosperous  and  happy  i,,  ()|ey 
and  it  may  be  wondered  why  they  left  flu  ir  fHrm.« 
and  their  loom.s,  both  of  which  were  profitable,  {.nd 
set  their  faces  towards  the  Unknown .  It  is  recorded 
that,  though  the  Boones  were  Quakers,  they  were 
of  a  high  mettle  and  were  not  infrequently  dealt 
with  by  the  Meeting.  Two  of  Squire  Boone's  chil- 
dren married  "  worldlings  "  -  non-Quakers  -  and 


if 


rf 


i 


28    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
were  in  consequence  "disowned"  by  the  Society. 
In  defiance  of  his  sect,  which  strove  to  make  him 
sever  all  connection   with  his   unruly  oflFspring, 
Squire  Boone  refused  to  shut  his  doors  on  the 
son  and  the  <iaughter  who  had  scandalized  local 
Quakerdom.   The  Society  of  Friends  thereupon  ex- 
pelle<l  him.     This  occurred  apparently  during  the 
winter  of  1748-49.    In  the  spring  of  1750  we  see 
the  whole  Boone  family  (save  two  sons)  with  their 
wives  and  children,  their  household  goods  and 
their  stock,  on  the  great  highway,  bound  for  a  land 
where  the  hot  heart  and  the  belligerent  spirit  shall 
not  be  held  amiss. 

Southward  through  the  Shenandoah  goes  the 
Boone  caravan.    The  women  and  children  usually 
sit  in  the  wagons.    The  men  march  ahead  or  along- 
side, keeping  a  keen  eye  open  for  Indian  or  other 
enemy  in  the  wild,  their  rifles  under  arm  or  over 
the  shoulder.    Squire  Boone,  who  has  done  with 
Quakerdom  and  is  leading  all  that  he  holds  dear 
out  to  larger  horizons,  is  ahead  of  the  line,  as  we 
picture  him,  ready  to  meet  first  whatever  danger 
may  assail  his  tribe.    He  is  a  strong  wiry  man  of 
rather  small  stature,  with  ruddy  complexion,  red 
hair,  and  gray  eyes.    Somewhere  in  the  line,  to- 
gether, we  think,  are  the  mother  and  son  who  have 


THE  TREAD  OP  PIONEERS  29 

herded  cattle  and  companioned  each  other  through 
long  months  in  the  cabin  on  the  frontier.  We  do 
not  think  of  this  woman  as  riding  in  the  wagon, 
though  she  may  have  done  so,  but  prefer  to  picture 
her.  with  her  tall  robust  body,  her  black  hair,  and 
her  black  eyes  -  wi.'  'he  sudden  Welsh  snap  in 
them  -  walking  as  sturdily  as  any  of  her  sons. 

If  Daniel  be  beside  her,  what  does  she  see  when 
she  looks  at  him?    A  lad  well  set  up  but  not  over- 
tall  for  his  sixteen  years,  perhaps  —  for  "eye-wit- 
nesses "  differ  in  their  estimates  of  Daniel  Boone's 
height  -  or  possibly  taller  than  he  looks,  because 
his  figure  has  the  forest  hunter's  natural  slant  for- 
ward and  the  droop  of  the  neck  of  one  who  must 
watch  his  path  sometimes  in  order  to  tread  silently 
It  IS  Squire  Boone's  blood  which  shows  in  his  ruddy 
face  -  which  would  be  fair  but  for  its  tan  -  and  in 
the  English  cut  of  feature,  the  straw-colore<I  eye- 
brows, and  the  blue  eyes.    But  his  Welsh  mother's 
legacy  is  seen  in  the  black  hair  that  hangs  long  and 
loose  in  the  hunter's  fashion  to  his  shoulders.    We 
can  think  of  Daniel  Boone  only  as  exhilaratinl  by 
this  plunge  into  the  Wild.     He  sees  ahead  -  the 
days  of  his  great  explorations  and  warfare,  the  dis- 
covery  of  Kentucky?    Not  at  all.    This  is  a  boy  of 
sixteen  in  love  with  his  rifle.    Ho  looks  ahead  to 


i 


i 


r\ 


I 


I 


SO    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

vistas  of  forest  filled  with  deer  and  to  skies  c!uuded 
with  flocks  of  wild  turkeys.  In  that  dream  there 
is  happiness  enough  for  Daniel  Boone,  Indeed,  for 
himself,  even  in  later  life,  he  asked  little,  if  any, 
more.    He  trudges  on  blithely,  whistling. 


n 


i\ 


CHAPTER  II 


m 


FOLKWAYS 


TuG8£  migrations  into  the  inland  valleys  of  the 
Old  South  mark  the  first  great  westward  thrust  of 
the  American  frontier.    Thus  the  beginnings  of  the 
westward  movement  disclose  to  us  a  feature  char- 
acteristic also  of  the  later  migrations  which  flung 
the  frontier  over  the  Appalachians,  across  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  finally  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 
The  pioneers,  instead  of  moving  westward  by  slow 
degrees,  subduing  the  wilderness  as  they  went, 
overleaped  great  spaces  and  planted  themselves  be- 
yond, out  of  contact  with  the  life  they  had  left 
behind.    Thus  separated  by  hundreds  of  miles  of 
intervening   wilderness  from   the  more  civilized 
communities,  the  conquerors  of  the  first  American 
"West,"  prototypes  of  the  conquerors  of  suc- 
ceeding "Wests,"  inevitably  struck  out  their  own 
ways  of  life  and  developed  their  own  customs.    It 
would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  find  anywhere  a  more 

SI 


ff; 


'i  ■  M 


i  I 


1 


32    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

remarkable  contrast  in  contemporary  folkways  than 
that  presented  by  the  two  great  community  groups 
of  the  South  —  the  inland  or  piedmont  settlements, 
called  the  Back  Country,  and  the  lowland  towns 
and  plantations  along  the  seaboard. 

The  older  society  of  the  seaboan!  towns,  as 
events  were  soon  to  prove,  was  not  less  indepen- 
dent in  its  ideals  than  the  frontier  society  of  the 
Back  Country;  but  it  was  aristocratic  in  tone  and 
feeling.  Its  leaders  were  the  landed  gentry  —  men 
of  elegance,  and  not  far  behind  their  European 
contemporaries  in  the  culture  of  the  day.  They 
were  rich,  without  effort,  both  from  their  planta- 
tions, where  black  slaves  and  indentured  servants 
labored,  and  from  their  coastwise  and  overseas 
trade.  Their  battles  with  forest  and  red  man  were 
long  past.  They  had  leisure  for  diversions  such  as 
the  chase,  the  breeding  and  racing  of  thoroughbred 
horses,  the  dance,  high  play  with  dice  and  card,  cock- 
fighting,  the  gallantry  of  love,  and  the  skill  of  the 
rapier.    Law  and  politics  drew  their  soberer  minds. 

Very  different  were  the  conditions  which  con- 
fronted the  pioneers  in  the  first  American  "Wesl." 
There  every  jewel  of  promise  was  ringed  round 
with  hostility.  The  cheap  land  the  pioneer  had 
purchased  at  a  nominal  price,  or  the  free  land 


I'i 


FOLKWAYS  33 

he  had  taken  by  "tomahawk  claim"  —  that  is  by 
cutting  his  name  into  the  bark  of  a  deade\  jd  tree, 
usually  beside  a  spring  —  supported  a  forest  of  tall 
trunks  and  interlacing  leafage.    The  long  grass  and 
weeds  which  covered  the  ground  in  a  wealth  of 
natural  pasturage  harbored  the  poisonous  cop- 
perhead and  the  rattlesnake  and,  being  shaded 
by  the  overhead  foliage,  they  held  the  heavy  dews 
and  bred  swarms  of  mosquitoes,  gnats,  and  big 
flies  which  tortured  both  men  and  cattle.   To  pro- 
tect the  cattle  and  horses  from   the  attacks   of 
these  pests  the  settlers  were  obliged  to  build  large 
"smudges"  —  fires  of  green  timber  —  against  the 
wind.    The  animals  soon  learned  to  back  up  into 
the  dense  smoke  and  to  move  from  one  grazing 
spot  to  another  as  the  wind  changed.    But  useful 
as  were  the  green  timber  fires  that  rolled  their 
smoke  on  the  wind  to  save  the  stock,  they  were  at 
the  same  time  a  menace  to  the  pioneer,  for  they 
proclaimed  to  roving  bands  of  Cherokees  that  a 
further  encroachment  on  their  territory  had  been 
-nade  by  their  most  hated  enemies  — the  men 
uo  felled  the  hunter's  forest.    Many  an  outpost 
pioneer  who  had  made  the  long  hard  journey  by 
sea  and  land  from  the  old  world  of  persecution  to 
this  new  country  of  freedom,  dropped  from  the 


ihi 


H 


.  -I        : 
-i 


i 


i 


! 


I 


'I 


84    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

red  man's  shot  ere  he  had  hewn  the  threshold 
of  his  home,  leaving  his  wife  and  children  to  the 
unrecorded  mercy  of  his  slayer. 

Those  more  fortunate  pioneers  who  settled  in 
groups  won  the  first  heat  in  the  battle  with  the 
wilderness  through  massed  effort  under  wariness. 
They  made  their  clearings  in  the  forest,  built  their 
cabins  and  stockades,  and  planted  their  cornfields, 
while  lookouts  kept  watch  and  rifles  were  stacked 
within  easy  reach.  Every  special  task,  such  as  a 
"raising, "  as  cabin  building  was  called,  was  under- 
taken by  the  community  chiefly  because  the  Indian 
danger  necessitated  swift  building  and  made  group 
action  imperative.  But  the  stanch  heart  is  ever 
the  glad  heart.  Nothing  in  this  frontier  history 
impresses  us  more  than  the  joy  of  the  pioneer  at  his 
labors.  His  determined  optimism  turned  danger's 
dictation  into  an  occasion  for  jollity.  On  the 
appointed  day  for  the  "raising,"  the  neighbors 
would  come,  riding  or  afoot,  to  the  newcomer's 
holding  —  the  men  with  their  rifles  and  axes,  the 
women  with  their  pots  and  kettles.  Every  child 
toddled  along,  too,  helping  to  carry  the  wooden 
dishes  and  spoons.  These  free  givers  of  labor  had 
something  of  the  Oriental's  notion  of  the  sacred 
ratification  of  friendship  by  a  feast. 


FOLKWAYS  ss 

The  usuul  dimensions  of  a  cabin  were  .sixte«'n  by 
twenty  feet.    The  timber  for  the  buildinK.  having 
been  already  cut.  lay  at  hand  —  logs  of  hickorj-, 
oak.  young  pine,  walnut,  or  persimmon.    To  make 
the  foundations,  the  men  seized  four  of  tht  thickest 
logs,  laid  them  in  place,  and  notched  and  grooved 
and  hammered  them  into  as  close  a  clinch  as  if  they 
had  grown  so.    The  wood  must  grip  by  its  own 
substance  alone  to  hold  up  the  pioneer's  dwelling, 
for  there  was  not  an  iron  nail  to  be  had  in  the  whole 
of  the  Back  Country.    Logs  laid  upon  the  founda- 
tion logs  and  notched  into  each  other  at  the  four 
corners  formed  the  walls;  and,  when  the.se  stood 
at  seven  feet,  the  builders  laid  parallel  timbers 
and  puncheons  to  make  both  flooring  and  ceiling. 
The  ridgepole  of  the  roof  was  supported  by  two 
crotched  trees  and  the  roofing  was  made  of  logs 
and  wooden  slabs.    The  crevices  of  the  walls  were 
packed  close  with  red  clay  and  moss.     Lastly, 
spaces  for  a  door  and  windows  were  cut  out.    The 
door  was  made  thick  and  heavy  to  withstand  the 
Indian's  rush.    Andthewindowpanes.?*   They  were 
of  paper  treated  with  hog's  fat  or  bear's  grease. 

When  the  sun  stood  overhead,  the  women  would 
give  the  welcome  call  of  "  Dinner !  '  Their  morn- 
ing had  not  been  less  busy  than  the  men's.    They 


.<fi 


! 

I.! 

Hi 


86    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

had  baked  corn  cakes  on  hot  stones,  roasted  bear 
or  pork,  or  broiled  venison  steaks;  and  —  above 
all  and  first  of  all  —  they  had  concocted  the  great 
"stew  pie"  without  which  a  raising  could  hardly 
take  place.  This  was  a  disputatious  mixture  of 
deer,  hog,  and  bear  —  animals  which,  in  life,  would 
surely  have  companioned  each  other  as  ill !  It  was 
made  in  sufficient  quantity  to  last  over  for  supper 
when  the  day's  labor  was  done.  At  supper  the  men 
took  their  ease  on  the  ground,  but  with  their  rifles 
always  in  reach.  If  the  cabin  just  raised  by  their 
efforts  stood  in  the  Yadkin,  within  sight  of  the 
great  mountains  the  pioneers  were  one  day  to 
cross,  perhaps  a  sudden  bird  note  warning  from 
the  lookout,  hidden  in  the  brush,  would  bring  the 
builders  with  a  leap  to  their  feet.  It  might  be  only 
a  hunting  band  of  friendly  Catawbas  that  passed, 
or  a  lone  Cherokee  who  knew  that  this  was  not  his 
hour.  If  the  latter,  we  can,  in  imagination,  see 
him  look  once  at  the  new  house  on  his  hunting 
pasture,  slacken  rein  for  a  moment  in  front  of  the 
group  of  families,  lift  his  hand  in  sign  of  peace,  and 
silently  go  his  way  hillward.  As  he  vanishes  into 
the  shadows,  the  crimson  sun,  sinking  into  the  un- 
known wilderness  beyond  the  mountains,  pours 
its  last  glow  on  the  roof  of  the  cabin  and  on  the 


FOLKWAYS  37 

group  near  its  walls.  With  unfelt  fingers,  subtly, 
it  puts  the  red  touch  of  the  West  in  the  faces  of  the 
men  —  who  have  just  declared,  through  the  build- 
ing of  a  cabin,  that  here  is  Journey's  End  and  their 
abiding  place. 


I 


There  were  community  holidays  among  these 
pioneers  as  well  aj  labor  days,  especially  in  the 
fruit  season;  and  there  were  flower-picking  excur- 
sions in  the  warm  spring  days.    Early  in  April 
the  service  berry  bush  gleamed  starrily  along  the 
watercourses,  its  hardy  white  blooms  defying  win- 
ter's lingering  look.    This  bush  — or  tree,  indeed, 
since  it  is  not  afraid  to  rear  its  slendef  trunk 
as  high  as  cherry  or  crab  apple  —  might  well  be 
considered  emblematic  of  the  frontier  spirit  in 
those  regions  where  the  white  silence  covers  the 
earth  for  several  months  and  shuts  the  lonely 
homesteader  in  upon  himself.    From  the  pioneer 
time  of  the  Old  Southwest  to  the  last  frontier  of 
the  Far  North  today,  the  service  berry  k  cherished 
alike  by  white  men  and  Indians;  and  the  red  men 
have  woven  about  it  some  of  their  prettiest  legends. 
When  June  had  ripened  the  tree's  blue-black  ber- 
ries, the  Back  Country  folk  went  out  in  parties 
to  gather  them.    Though  the  service  berry  was  a 


I  'f 


1 1' 


5 


^ 


If 


I 


88    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

food  staple  on  the  frontier  and  its  gathering  a 
matter  of  household  economy,  the  folk  made  their 
berry-picking  jaunt  a  gala  occasion.  The  women 
and  children  with  pots  and  baskets  —  the  young 
girls  vying  with  each  other,  under  the  eyes  of  the 
youths,  as  to  who  could  strip  boughs  the  fastest  — 
plucked  gayly  while  the  men,  rifles  in  hand,  kept 
guard.  For  these  happy  summer  days  were  also 
the  red  man's  scalpikig  days  and,  at  any  moment, 
the  chatter  of  the  picnickers  might  be  interrupted 
by  the  chilling  war  whoop.  When  that  sound  was 
heard,  the  berry  pickers  raced  for  the  fort.  The 
wild  fruits  —  strawberries,  service  berries,  cherries, 
plums,  crab  apples  —  were,  however,  too  necessary 
a  part  of  the  pioneer's  meager  diet  to  be  left  un- 
plucked  out  of  fear  of  an  Indian  attack.  Another 
day  would  see  the  same  group  out  again.  The 
children  would  keep  closer  to  their  mothers,  no 
doubt;  and  the  laughter  of  the  young  girls  would  be 
more  subdued,  even  if  their  coquetry  lacked  noth- 
ing of  its  former  effectiveness.  Early  mart  .es 
were  the  rule  in  the  Back  Country  and  betr  :  lals 
were  frequently  plighted  at  these  berry  pickings. 

As  we  consider  the  descriptions  of  the  frontiers- 
man left  for  us  by  travelers  of  his  own  day,  we  are 
not  more  interested  in  his  battles  with  wilderness 


FOLKWAYS  s9 

and  Indian  than  'n  thi-  visible  i'fr«ft.s  of  both  wil- 
dernrss  and  Indian  uiK)n  him.     His  fountenance 
and  bearing  still  show  tht-  European,  but  the  Euro- 
pean greatly  altered  by  savage  contact.    The  red 
peril,  indeed,  influenced  ««very  side  of  frontier  life. 
The  bands  of  women  and  children  at  the  harvest- 
ings, the  log  rollings,  and  the  house  raisings,  were 
not  there  merely  to  lighten  the  men's  work  by  their 
laughter  und  love-making.     It  was  not  safe  for 
them  to  remain  in  the  cabins,  for,  to  the  Indian, 
thi'  cabin  thus  boldly  thrust  upon  his  immemorial 
hunting  grounds  was  only  a  secondary  evil;  the 
greater  evil  was  the  white  man's  family,  bespeak- 
ing the  increase  of  the  dreaded  palefaces.     The 
Indian   peril    trained    the   pioneers    to  alertness, 
shaped  them  as  warriors  and  hunters,  suggested 
the  fashion  of  their  dress,  knit  their  families  into 
clans  and  the  clans  into  a  tribe  wherein  all  were 
of  one  spirit  in  the  protection  of  each  and  all  and  a 
unit  of  hate  against  their  common  enemy. 

Too  often  the  fields  which  the  pioneer  planted 
with  corn  were  harvested  by  the  Indian  with  fire. 
ThehardestprivationssuflFered  by  farmersand  stock 
were  due  to  the  settlers  having  to  flee  to  the  forts, 
leaving  to  Indian  devastation  the  crops  on  which 
their  sustenance  mainly  depended.     Sometimes, 


m\ 


40    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOLTHWEST 

fortunatdy,  i  u.  warning  camt-  in  time  for  the  fron- 
tiersnmn  to  cc,llt>ct  his  goods  and  chattels  in  his 
wagon  and  tc  -  ind  up  his  live  stock  and  drive 
theinsafdyint..  th.  <t)nimonfortifiedenclosurf.  At 
others,  the  tap  of  I »..  "express  "  ~  as  the  herald  of 
Indian  dange,  wn.  ailed  -  at  night  on  the  win- 
dowpanean!  .u..  1  ,v.  word  whispered  hastily,  ere 
the  "expres.  r.ai  o  i  to  the  next  abode,  meant 
that  the  Indii  is  ....;  urpri«..d  the  outlying  cabins 
of  the  settle?  le  <  . 

The  forts        .   h;.      ,      ontrally  as  possible  in 
thescattered.se  tlem.ui^    They  consisted  of  cabins, 
blockhouses,  »   J  St,  d<aJrs.    A  range  of  cabins 
often  formed  one  side  of  a  fort.    The  walls  on  the 
outside  were  ten  or  twelve  feet  high  with  roofs 
sloping  inward.     The  blockhouses  built  at  the  an- 
gles  of  the  fort  projected  two  feet  or  so  beyond 
the  outer  walls  of  the  cabins  and  stockades,  and 
were  fitted  with  portholes  for  the  watchers  and 
the  marksmen.     The  entrance  to  the  fort  was  a 
laige  folding  gate  of  thick  slabs.     It  was  always  on 
the  side  nearest  the  spring.    The  whole  structure 
of  the  fort  was  bullet-proof  and  was  erected  with- 
out an  iron  nail  or  spike.    In  the  border  wars  these 
forts  withstood  all  attacks.    The  savages,  having 
proved  that  they  could  not  storm  them,  generally 


POI^K^AYS  41 

laid  siegt  and  waited  for  thirst  to  compel  a  sortie. 
But  the  crafty  besieger  was  as  often  outwitted  by 
the  equally  cunning  defender.  Some  daring  soul, 
with  silent  feet  and  p>erhaps  with  naked  body 
painted  in  Indian  fashion,  would  drop  from  the 
waH  under  cover  of  the  night,  pas.s  among  the 
foonu'n  to  the  spring,  and  return  to  the  fort 
with  water. 

Into  the  pioneer's  phrase-making  the  Indian 
influence  penetrated  so  that  he  named  seasons 
for  his  foe.  So  thoroughly  has  the  term  "In'':;  n 
Summer,"  now  to  us  redolent  of  charm,  beccTiC 
disassociated  from  its  origins  that  it  gives  us  a 
shock  to  be  reminded  that  to  these  Efack  Co«untry 
folk  the  balmy  days  following  on  the  cold  snap 
meant  the  season  when  the  red  men  would  come 
back  for  a  last  murderous  raid  on  the  settlements 
before  winter  should  seal  up  the  land.  The 
"Powwowing  Days"  were  the  mellow  days  in  the 
latter  part  of  February,  when  the  red  men  in 
council  made  their  medicine  and  learned  of  their 
redder  gods  whether  or  no  they  should  take  the 
warpath  when  the  sap  pulsed  the  trees  into  leaf. 
Even  the  children  at  their  play  acknowledged  the 
red-skinned  schoolmaster,  for  their  chief  games 
were  a  training  in  his  woodcraft  and  in  the  use  of 


0 

,1 

'  I 


' 


»,M 


\     s 


4«    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

his  weapons.    Tomahawk-throwing  was  a  favorite 
sport  because  of  its  gruesome  practical  purposes. 
The  boys  must  learn  to  gauge  the  tomahawk's 
revolutions  by  the  distance  of  the  throw  so  as  to 
bury  the  blade  in  its  objective.    Swift  running  and 
high  jumping  through  the  brush  and  fallen  timber 
were  sports  that  taught  agility  in  escape.    The 
boys  learned  to  shoot  accurately  the  long  rifles  of 
their  time,  with  a  log  or  a  forked  stick  for  a  rest, 
and  a  moss  pad  under  the  barrel  to  keep  it  from 
jerking  and  spoiling  the  aim.    They  wrestled  with 
each  other,  mastered  the  tricks  of  throwing  an 
opponent,  and  learned  the  scalp  hold  instead  of  the 
toe  hold.    It  was  part  of  their  education  to  imi- 
tate the  noises  of  every  bird  and  beast  of  the  forest. 
So  they  learned  to  lure  the  turkey  within  range,  or 
by  the  bleat  of  a  fawn  to  bring  her  dam  to  the  rifle. 
A  well-simulated  wolf's  howl  would  call  forth  a 
response  and  so  inform  the  lone  hunter  of  the 
vicinity  of  the  pack.    This  forest  speech  was  not 
only  the  language  of  diplomacy  in  the  hunting 
season;  it  was  the  borderer's  secret  code  in  war. 
Stray  Indians  put  themselves  in  touch  again  with 
the  band  by  turkey  calls  in  the  daytime  and  by 
owl  or  wolf  notes  at  night.    The  frontiersmen  used 
the  same  means  to  trick  the  Indian  baud  into 


FOLKWAYS  43 

betraying  the  place  of  its  ambuscade,  or  to  lure  the 
strays,  unwittmg,  within  reach  of  the  knife. 

In  that  age,  before  the  forests  had  given  place  to 
farms  and  cities  and  when  the  sun  had  but  slight 
acquaintance  with  the  sod,  the  summers  were  cool 
and  the  winters  long  and  cold  in  the  Back  Country. 
Sometimes  in  September  severe  frosts  destroyed 
the  corn.    The  first  light  powdering  called  "hunt- 
ing snows"  fell  in  October,  and  then  the  men  of  the 
Back  Country  set  out  on  the  chase.    Their  object 
was  meat  —  buffalo,  deer,  elk,  bear  —  for  the  win- 
ter larder,  and  skins  to  send  out  in  the  spring  by 
pack-horses  to  the  coast  in  trade  for  iron,  steel, 
and  salt.   The  rainfall  in  North  Carolina  was  much 
heavier  than  in  Virginia  and,  from  autumn  into 
early  winter,  the  Yadkin  forests  were  sheeted  with 
rain;  but  wet  weather,  so  fai  from  deterring  the 
hunter,  aided  him  to  the  kill.    In  blowing  rain,  he 
knew  he  would  find  the  deer  herding  in  the  shel- 
tered places  on  the  hillsides.    In  windless  rain,  he 
knew  that  his  quarry  ranged  the  open  woods  and 
the  high  places.    The  fair  play  of  the  pioneer  held 
it  a  great  disgrace  to  kill  a  deer  in  winter  when  the 
heavy  frost  had  crusted  the  deep  snow.    On  the 
crust  men  and  wolves  could  travel  with  ease,  but 
the  deer's  sharp  hoofs  pierced  through  and  made 


Mr 


44    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

him  defenseless.  Wolves  and  dogs  destroyed  great 
quantities  of  deer  caught  in  this  way;  and  men 
who  shot  deer  under  these  conditions  were  con- 
sidered no  huntsmen.  There  was,  indeed,  a  practi- 
cal side  to  this  chivalry  of  the  chase,  for  meat  and 
pelt  were  both  poor  at  this  season;  but  the  true 
hunter  also  obeyed  the  finer  tenet  of  his  code,  for 
he  would  go  to  the  rescue  of  deer  caught  in  the 
crusts  —  and  he  killed  many  a  wolf  sliding  over  the 
ice  to  an  easy  meal. 

The  community  moral  code  of  the  frontier  was 
brief  and  rigorous.  What  it  lacked  of  the  "where- 
as" and  "inasmuch"  of  legal  ink  it  made  up  in 
sound  hickory.  In  fact,  when  we  review  the  activi- 
ties of  this  solid  yet  elastic  wood  in  the  moral, 
social,  and  economic  phases  of  Back  Country  life, 
we  are  moved  to  wonder  if  the  pioneers  would  have 
been  the  same  race  of  men  had  they  been  nurtured 
beneath  a  less  strenuous  and  adaptable  vegetation! 
The  hickory  gave  the  frontiersman  wood  for  all 
implements  and  furnishings  where  the  demand 
was  equally  for  lightness,  strength,  and  elastic- 
ity. It  provided  his  straight  logs  for  building,  his 
block  mortars  —  hollowed  by  fire  and  stone  —  for 
corn-grinding,  his  solid  plain  furniture,  his  axles, 
rifle  butts,  ax  handles,  and  so  forth.    It  suppUed 


FOLKWAYS  45 

his  magic  wand  for  the  searching  out  of  iniquity 
in  the  junior  members  of  his  household,  and  his 
most  cogent  argument,  as  a  citizen,  in  convincing 
the  slothful,  the  blasphemous,  or  the  dishonest 
adult  whose  errors  disturbed  communal  harmony. 
Its  nuts  fed  his  hogs.    Before  he  raised  stock,  the 
unripe  hickory  nuts,  crushed  for  their  white  liquid, 
supplied  him  with  butter  for  his  corn  bread  and 
helped  out  his  store  of  bear's  fat.    Both  the  name 
and  the  knowledge  of  the  uses  of  this  tree  came 
to  the  earliest  pioneers  through  contact  with  the 
red  man,  whose  hunting  bow  and  fishing  spear  and 
the  hobbles  for  his  horses  were  fashioned  of  the 
"pohickory"  tree.    The  Indian  women  first  made 
pohickory  butter,  and  the  wise  old  men  of  the 
Cherokee  towns,  so  we  are  told,  first  applied  the 
pohickory  rod  to  the  vanity  of  youth! 

A  glance  at  the  interior  of  a  log  cabin  in  the 
Back  Country  of  Virginia  or  North  Carolina  would 
show,  in  primitive  design,  what  is,  perhaps,  after 
all  the  perfect  home  —  a  place  where  the  personal 
life  and  the  work  life  are  united  and  where  nothing 
futile  finds  space.  Every  object  in  the  cabin  was 
practical  and  had  been  made  by  hand  on  the  spot 
to  answer  a  need.  Besides  the  chairs  hewn  from 
hickory  blocks,  there  were  others  made  of  slabs 


'A 


46    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
set  on  three  legs.   A  large  slab  or  two  with  four  legs 
ser/ed  as  a  movable  table;  the  permanent  table 
was  built  against  the  wall,  its  outer  edge  held  up 
by  two  sticks.    The  low  bed  was  built  into  the  wall 
in  the  same  way  and  -oftened  for  slumber  by  a 
mattress  of  pine  needles,  chaff,  or  dried  moss.  In  the 
best  light  from  the  greased  paper  windowpanes 
stood  the  spinning  wheel  and  loom,  on  which  the 
housewife  made  cloth  for  the  family's  garments. 
Over  the  fireplace  or  beside  the  doorway,  and  sus- 
pended usually  on  stags'  antlers,  hung  the  fire- 
arms and  the  yellow  powderhoms.  the  latter  often 
carved  in  Indian  fashion  with  scenes  of  the  hunt 
or  war.    On  a  shelf  or  on  pegs  were  the  wooden 
spoons,  plates,  bowls,  and  noggins.    Also  near  the 
fireplace,  which  was  made  of  large  flat  stones  with 
a  mud-plastered  log  chimney,  stood  the  grinding 
block  for  making  hominy.    If  it  were  an  evening 
in  early  spring,  the  men  of  the  household  would  be 
tanning  and  dressing  deerskins  to  be  sent  out  with 
the  trade  caravan,  while  the  women  sewed,  made 
moccasins  or  mended  them,  in  the  light  of  pine 
knots  or  candles  of  bear's  grease.    The  larger  chil- 
dren might  be  weaving  cradles  for  the  babies,  In- 
dian fashion,  out  of  hickory  twigs;  and  there  would 
surely  be  a  sound  of  whetting  steel,  for  scalping 


r  ' 


tX^LKWAYS  47 

knives  and  tomahawkii  must  be  kept  keeu-teiu- 
pered  now  that  the  days  have  come  when  the  red 
gods  whisper  their  chant  of  war  through  the  young 
leafage. 

The  Back  Country  folk,  as  they  came  from  sev- 
eral countries,  generally  settled  in  national  groups, 
each  preserving  its  own  speech  and  its  own  re- 
ligion, each  approaching  frontier  life  through  its 
own  native  temperament.    And  the  frontier  met 
each  and  all  alike,  with  the  same  need  and  the 
same  menace,  and  molded  them  after  one  general 
pattern.    If  the  cabin  stood  in  a  typical  Virginian 
settlement  where  the  folk  were  of  English  stock, 
it  may  be  that  the  dulcimer  and  some  old  love  song 
of  the  homeland  enlivened  the  work  —  or  perhaps 
chairs  were  pushed  back  and  young  people  danced 
the  country  dances  of  the  homeland  and  the  Vir- 
ginia Reel,  for  these  Virginian  English  were  merry 
folk,  and  their  religion  did  not  frown  upon  the 
dance.    In  a  cabin  on  the  Shenandoah  or  the  upper 
Yadkin  the  German  tongue  clicked  away  over  the 
evening  dish  of  kraut  or  sounded  more  sedately  in 
a  Lutheran  hymn;  while  from  some  herder's  hut 
on  the  lower  Yadkin  the  wild  note  of  the  bagpipes 
or  of  the  ancient  four-stringed  harp  mingled  with 
the  Gaelic  speech. 


;ii 


<l 


It 


it 


I 


i 


48    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Among  the  homes  in  the  Shenandoah  where  old 
England's  ways  prevailed,  none  was  gayer  than 
the  tavern  kept  by  the  man  whom  the  good  Mora- 
vian Brother  called  "Severe."  There  perhaps  the 
feasting  celebrated  the  nuptials  of  John  Sevier, 
who  was  barely  past  his  seventeenth  birthday  when 
he  took  to  himself  a  wife.  Or  perhaps  the  dancing, 
in  moccasined  feet  on  the  puncheon  flooring,  was  a 
ceremonial  to  usher  into  Back  Country  life  the  new 
municipality  John  had  just  organized,  for  John  at 
nineteen  had  taken  his  earliest  step  towards  his 
larger  career,  which  we  shall  follow  later  on,  as 
the  architect  of  the  first  little  governments  beyond 
the  mountains. 

In  the  Boone  home  on  the  Yadkin,  we  may  guess 
that  the  talk  was  solely  of  the  hunt,  unless  young 
Daniel  had  already  become  possessed  of  his  first 
compass  and  was  studying  its  ways.  On  such  an 
evening,  while  the  red  afterglow  lingered,  he  might 
be  mending  a  passing  trader's  firearms  by  the  fires 
of  the  primitive  forge  his  father  had  set  up  near 
the  trading  path  running  from  Hillsborough  to  the 
Catawba  towns.  It  was  said  by  the  local  nim- 
rods  that  none  could  doctor  a  sick  rifle  better  than 
young  Daniel  Boone,  already  the  master  huntsman 
of  them  all.    And  perhaps  some  trader's  tale,  told 


f 


I'X)LKWAYS  49 

when  the  caravan  halted  for  the  night,  kindled 
the  youth's  first  desire  to  penetrate  the  mountain- 
guarded  wilderness,  for  the  tales  of  these  Roma- 
nies of  commerce  were  as  the  veiy  badge  of 
their  free-masonry,  and  entry  money  at  the  doors 
of  strangers. 

Out  on  the  border's  edge,  heedless  of  the  shadow 
of  the  mountains  looming  between  the  newly  built 
cabin  and  that  western  land  where  they  and  their 
kind  were  to  write  the  fame  of  the  Ulster  Scot  in  a 
shmmg  script  that  time  cannot  dull,  there  might 
sit  a  group  of  stem-faced  men,  all  deep  in  discussion 
of  some  point  of  spiritual  doctrine  or  of  the  tem- 
poral rights  of  men.    Yet.  in  every  cabin,  what- 
ever the  national  differences,  the  setting  was  the 
same     The  spirit  of  the  frontier  was  modeling  out 
of  old  clay  a  new  Adam  to  answer  the  needs  of  a 
new  earth 

It  would  be  far  less  than  just  to  leave  the  Back 
Country  folk  without  further  reference  to  the  de- 
voted labors  of  their  clergy.  In  the  earliest  days 
the  settlers  were  cut  off  from  their  church  systems- 
the  pious  had  to  maintain  their  piety  unaided,  ex- 
cept in  the  rare  cases  where  a  pastor  accompanied 
a  group  of  settlers  of  his  denomination  into  the 
wilds.    One  of  the  first  ministers  who  fared  into 


I 


50  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
the  Back  Country  to  remind  the  Ulster  Presby- 
terians of  their  spiritual  duties  was  the  Reverend 
Hugh  McAden  of  Philadelphia.  He  made  long 
itineraries  under  the  greatest  hardships,  in  con- 
stant danger  from  Indians  and  wild  beasts,  carry- 
ing the  counsel  of  godliness  to  the  far  scattered 
flock.  Among  the  Highland  settlements  the  Rev- 
erend James  Campbell  for  thirty  years  traveled 
alK>ut,  preaching  each  Sunday  at  some  gathering 
point  a  sermon  in  both  English  and  Gaelic.  A 
little  later,  in  the  Yadkin  Valley,  after  Craighead's 
day  there  arose  a  small  school  of  Presbyterian 
ministers  whose  zeal  and  fearlessness  in  the 
cause  of  religion  and  of  just  government  had  an 
influence  on  the  frontiersmen  that  can  hardly  be 
overestimated. 

But,  in  the  b^inning,  the  pioneer  encountered 
the  savagery  J  border  life,  grappled  with  it,  and 
reacted  to  it  without  guidance  from  other  men- 
tor than  his  own  instincts.  His  need  was  s\ill  the 
primal  threefold  need  —  family,  sustenance,  and 
safe  sleep  when  the  day's  work  was  done.  We  who 
look  back  with  thoughtful  eyes  upon  the  frontiers- 
man—  all  links  of  contact  with  his  racial  past 
severed,  at  grips  with  destruction  in  the  contenting 
of  his  needs  —  see  something  more,  something 


FOLKWAYS  5, 

lai^ger,  than  he  saw  in  the  log  cabin  raised  by  his 
hands,  its  structure  held  together  solely  by  his 
close  grooving  and  fitting  of  its  own  strength. 
Though  the  walls  he  built  for  himself  have  gone 
with  his  own  dust  back  to  the  earth,  the  symbol  he 
erected  for  us  stands. 


CHAPTER  ni 


' 


THE   TRADER 

The  trader  was  the  first  pathfinder.    His  caravans 
began  the  change  of  purpose  that  was  to  come  to 
the  Indian  warrior's  route,  turning  it  slowly  into 
the  beaten  track  of  communication  and  commerce. 
The  settlers,  the  rangers,  the  surveyors,  went  west- 
ward over  the  trails  which  he  had  blazed  for  them 
years   before.     Their  enduring  works  are  com- 
memorated in  the  cities  and  farms  which  today  lie 
along  every  ancient  border  line;  but  of  their  fore- 
runner's hazardous  Indian  trade  nothing  remains. 
Let  us  therefore  pay  a  moment's  homage  here  to 
the  trader,  who  first  —  to  borrow  a  phrase  from 
Indian  speech  — made  white  for  peace  the  red 
trails  of  war. 

He  was  the  first  cattleman  of  the  Old  Southwest. 
Fifty  years  before  John  Findlay,'  one  of  this  class 
of  pioneers,  led  Daniel  Boone  through  Cumberland 

■  The  name  is  spelled  in  various  ways:    Findlay,  Finlay,  FindJey. 


THE  TRADER  53 

Gap,  the  trader's  bandsi  of  horses  roamed  the  west- 
em  slopes  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains  and  his 
cattle  grazed  among  the  derr  on  the  green  banks 
of  the  old  Cherokee  (Tennessee)  River.   He  was 
the  pioneer  settler  beyond  the  high  hills;  for  he 
built,  in  the  center  of  the  Indian  towns,  the  first 
white  man's  cabin  -  with  its  larger  annex,  the  trad- 
ing house  -  and  dwelt  there  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  year.    He  was  America's  first  magnate  of 
international  commerce.    His  furs  —  for  which  he 
paid  in  guns,  knives,  ammunition,  vermilion  paint, 
mirrors,  and  cloth  -  lined  kings'mantles,  and  hatted 
the  Lords  of  Trade  as  they  strode  to  their  councU 
chamber  in  London  to  discuss  his  business  and  to 
pass  those  regulations  which  might  have  serious- 
ly hampered  him  but   for  his  resourcefulness  in 
circumventing  them! 

He  was  the  first  frontier  warrior,  for  he  either 
fought  off  or  fell  before  smafi  parties  of  hostile  In- 
dians who.  in  the  interest  of  the  Spanish  or  French, 
raided  his  pack-horse  caravans  on  the  march.  Often, 
too,  side  by  side  with  the  red  brothers  of  his  adop- 
tion, he  fought  in  the  intertribal  wars.  His  was  the 
first  educative  and  civilizing  influence  in  the  Indian 
towns.  He  endeavored  to  cure  the  Indians  of  their 
favorite  midsummer  madness,  war,  by  inducing 


r:; 

'II: 


54  PIONEKRS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
them  to  raise  stock  and  poultiy  and  improve  their 
com.  squash,  and  pea  gardens.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  impute  to  him  philanthropic  motives.  He  was 
a  practical  man  and  he  saw  that  war  hurt  his  trade: 
it  endangered  his  summer  caravans  and  hampered 
the  autumn  hunt  for  deerskins. 

In  the  earliest  days  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  the  colonists  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas 
were  only  a  handful,  it  was  the  trader  who  de- 
feated each  successive  attempt  of  French  and  Span- 
ish agents  to  weld  the  tribes  into  a  confederacy  for 
the  annihilation  of  the  English  settlements.  The 
English  trader  did  his  share  to  prevent  what  is  now 
the  United  States  from  becoming  a  part  of  a  Latin 
empire  and  to  save  it  for  a  race  having  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  ideal  and  speaking  the  English  tongue. 

The  colonial  records  of  the  period  contain  items 
which,  taken  singly,  make  small  impression  on  the 
casual  reader  but  which,  listed  together,  throw  a 
strong  light  on  the  past  and  bring  that  mercenary 
figure,  the  trader,  into  so  bold  u  relief  that  the 
design  verges  on  the  heroic.  If  we  wonder,  for 
instance,  why  the  Scotch  Highlanders  who  set- 
tled in  the  wilds  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Cape 
Fear  River,  about  1729,  and  were  later  followed 
by  Welsh  and  Huguenots,  met  with  no  opposition 


THE  TRADER  « 

from  the  Indians,  thf  mystery  is  solved  when  we 
discover,  almost  hy  accident,  a  few  printed  lines 
which  rtvord  that,  in  1700,  the  hMtiie  natives  on 
the  Cape  Fear  were  subdued  to  the  English  and 
brought  into  friendly  alliance  with  them  by  Colo- 
nel Wifliam  Bull,  u  trader.    Wr  read  further  and 
learn  that  the  Spaniards  in  Florida  had  long  en- 
deavored  to  unite  the  trib«'.s  in  Spanish  and  French 
territory  against  the  English  and  thai  the  influ- 
ence of  traders  preventwl  the  consummation.    Tlie 
Spaniards,  in  170«,  had  prepared  loim  ade  English 
territory  with  nine  hundred  Indian.^.    The  plot  was 
discovered  by  Creek  In.iians  and  '!i..<  losfnl  to  tJuir 
friends,   the  traders,   who  immediafily  ^Jtliertd 
together  five  hundred  warriors,  ma.luvl  svv.ftly 
to  meet  the  invaders,  and  utterly  routed  them. 
Again,  when  the  Indians,  incited  by  the  Spanish 
at  St.  Augustine,  rose  against  the  English  in  1715, 
and  the  Yamasi  Massacre  occurred  in  South  Caro- 
lina, it  was  due  to  the  traders  that  some  of  the 
settlements  at  least  were  not  wholly  unprepared  to 
defend  themselves. 

The  early  English  trader  was  generally  an  in- 
telligent man;  sometimes  educated,  nearly  always 
feariess  and  resourceful.  He  knew  the  one  sure 
basis  on  which  men  of  alien  blood  and  far  separated 


56    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
stages  of  moral  and  intellectual  development  can 
meet  m  understanding  —  namely,  the  truth  of  the 
spoken  word.    He  recognized  honor  as  the  bond  of 
trade  and  the  warp  and  woof  of  human  intercourse. 
The  uncorrupted  savage  also  had  his  plain  inter- 
pretation of  the  true  word  in  the  mouths  of  men. 
and  a  name  for  it.    He  called  it  the  "Old  Beloved 
Speech";  and  he  gave  his  confidence  to  the  man 
who  spoke  this  speech  even  in  the  close  barter 
for  furs. 

We  shall  find  it  worth  while  to  refer  to  the  map 
of  America  as  it  was  in  the  early  days  of  the  colo- 
nial fur  trade,  about  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.    A  narrow  strip  of  loosely  strung 
English  settlements  stretched  from  the  north  bor- 
der  of  New  England  to  the  Florida  line.    North 
Florida  was  Spanish  territory.    On  the  far  distant 
southwestern  borders  of  the  English  colonies  were 
the  .southern  possessions  of  France.    The  French 
sphere  of  influence  extended  up  the  Mississippi, 
and  thence  by  way  of  rivers  and  the  Great  Lakes 
to  its  base  in  Canada  on  the  borders  of  New  Eng- 
land and  New  York.    In  South  Carolina  dwelt  the 
Yamasi  tribe  of  about  three  thousand  warriors, 
their  chief  towns  only  sixty  or  eighty  miles  distant 
from  the  Spanish  town  of  St.  Augustine.    On  the 


EXPLORA'nON  AND  SETTLKMKNT       J 


I        so 


OF  THK 


V«M523^1  Y^^1  Ihi^ucBii^--  t'''/'       •■"'S'' 


SOUTHERN  ^)/-         V 

TRANS-APPALACHRN  f orNTKV    ^  i*^'       jl  ^^^^ 


slrrc 

4C 


1750  -  I79H 


APPROXIMATE 

ROUTES  OF  PIONEERS 

-JtiMuir  ITt:7    '<> 

ftolitrtiiim  nsu 

CAMPAIGN    ROUTES 
or    THE    REVOLUTION 

Mrthiwrll  ,uut  Shfttn    -t". 

„.   ,  '"   *■■<».  'W 

t'lTijllxoii    Urillih 

»ut    Ott    7ac 


0!»>>-:l.«0,   *   t  ,       „,,^    ««*C«»  iH.C«A<.,..:»HvC 


.^l^'S 


THE  TRADER  57 

west,  about  the  same  distance  northeast  of  New 
Orleans,  in  what  is  now  Alabama  and  Georgia,  lay 
the  Creek  nation.  There  French  garrisons  held  Mo- 
bile and  Fort  Alabama.     The  Creeks  at  this  time 
numbered  over  four  thousand  warriors.    The  lands 
of  the  Choctaws,  a  tribe  of  even  larger  fighting 
strength,  began  two  hundred  miles  north  of  New 
Orleans  and  extended  along  the  Mississippi.    A 
hundred  and  sixty  miles  northeast  of  the  Choc- 
taw towns  were  the  Chickasaws,  the  bravest  and 
most  successful  warriors  of  all  the  tribes  south  of 
the  Iroquois.   The  Cherokees,  in  part  seated  within 
the  Carolinas,  on  the  upper  courses  of  the  Savannah 
River,  mustered  over  six  thousand  men  at  arms. 
East  of  them  were  the  Catawba  towns.    North  of 
them  were  the  Shawanoes  and  Delawares,  in  easy 
communication  with  the  tribes  of  Canada.    Still 
farther  north,  along  the  Mohawk  and  other  rivers 
joining  with  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Ontario  stood 
the  "long  houses"  of  the  fiercest  and  most  war- 
like  of  all  the  savages,  the  Iroquois  or  Six  Nations. 
The  Indians  along  the  English   borders  out- 
numbered the  colonists  perhaps  ten  to  one.    If  the 
Spanish  and  the  French  had  succeeded  in  the  con- 
spiracy to  unite  on  their  side  all  the  tribes,  a  red 
billow  of  tomahawk  wielders  would  have  engutted 


'M 


58    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
and  extinguished  the  English  settlements.    The 
French,  it  is  true,  made  allies  of  the  Shawanoes, 
the  Delawares,  the  Choctaws,  and  a  strong  fac- 
tion of  the  Creeks;  and  they  finally  won  over 
the  Cherokees  after  courting  them  for  more  than 
twenty  years.     But  the  Creeks  in  part,  the  power- 
ful Chickasaws,  and  the  Iroquois  Confederacy, 
or  Six  Nations,  remained  loyal  to  the  English.  In 
both  North  and  South  it  was  the  influence  of  the 
traders  that  kept  these  red  tribes  on  the  Eng- 
lish side.     The  Iroquois  were  held  loyal  by  Sir 
William  Johnson  and  his  deputy,  George  Croghan, 
the  "King  of  Traders."     The  Chickasaws  fol- 
lowed their  "best-beloved"  trader,  James  Adair; 
and  among  the  Creeks  another  trader,  Lachlan 
McGillivray,  wielded  a  potent  influence. 

Lachlan  McGillivray  was  a  Highlander.  He 
landed  in  Charleston  in  1735  at  the  age  of  sixteen 
and  presently  joined  a  trader's  caravan  as  pack- 
horse  boy.  A  few  years  later  he  married  a  woman 
of  the  Creeks.  On  many  occasions  he  defeated 
French  and  Spanish  plots  with  the  Creeks  for 
the  extermination  of  the  colonists  in  Georgia  and 
South  Carolina.  His  action  in  the  final  war  with 
the  French  (1760).  when  the  Indian  terror  was 
raging,  is  typical.    News  came  that  four  thousand 


THE  TRADER  59 

Creek  warriors,  reinforced  by  French  Choctaws, 
were  about  to  fall  on  the  southern  settlements. 
At  the  risk  of  their  lives,  McGillivray  and  another 
trader  named  Galphin  hurried  from  Charleston 
to  their  trading  house  on  the  Georgia  frontier. 
Thither  they  invited  several  hundred  Creek  war- 
riors, feasted  and  housed  them  for  several  days, 
and  finally  won  them  from  their  purpose.  Mc- 
Gillivray had  a  brilliant  son,  Alexander,  who  about 
this  time  became  a  chief  in  his  mother's  nation  — 
perhaps  on  this  very  occasion,  as  it  was  an  Indian 
custofn,  in  making  a  brotherhood  pact,  to  send  a 
son  to  dwell  in  the  brother's  house.  We  shall  meet 
that  son  again  as  the  Chief  of  the  Creeks  and  the 
terrible  scourge  of  Georgia  and  Tennessee  in  the 
dark  days  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

The  bold  deeds  of  the  early  traders,  if  all  were  to 
be  told,  would  require  a  book  as  long  as  the  huge 
volume  written  by  James  Adair,  the  "English 
Chickasaw. "  Adair  was  an  Englishman  who  en- 
tered the  Indian  trade  in  1735  and  launched  upon 
the  long  and  dangerous  trail  from  Charleston 
to  the  upper  towns  of  the  Cherokees,  situated  in 
the  present  Monroe  County,  Tennessee.  Thus  he 
was  one  of  the  earliest  pioneers  of  the  Old  South- 
west; and  he  was  Tennessee's  first  author.     "I 


•0    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
am  well  acquainted."  he  says,  "with  near  two 
thousand  miles  of  the  American  continent"  — a 
statement  which  gives  one  some  idea  of  an  early 
trader's  enterprise,  hardihood,  and  peril.     Adair's 
"two  thousand  miles"  were  twisting  Indian  trails 
and  paths  he  slashed  out  for  himself  through  un- 
inhabited wilds,  for  when  not  engaged  in  trade, 
hunting,  literature,  or  war,  it  pleased  him  to  make 
soliUry  trips  of  exploration.    These  seem  to  have 
led  him  chiefly  northward  through  the  Appalachi- 
ans,  of  whicl  lie  must  have  been  one  of  the  first 
white  explorers. 

A  many-sided  man  was  James  Adair  —  cultured, 
for  his  style  suffers  not  by  comparison  with  other 
writers  of  his  day,  no  stranger  to  Latin  and  Greek, 
and  not  ignorant  of  Hebrew,  which  he  studied  to 
assist  him  in  setting  forth  his  ethnological  theory 
that  the  American  Indians  were  the  descendants 
of  the  Ten  Last  Tribes  of  Israel.    Before  we  dismiss 
his  theory  with  a  smile,  let  us  remember  that  he 
had  not  at  his  disposal  the  date  now  available 
which  reveal  points  of  likeness  in  custom,  lan- 
guage formation,  and  symbolism  among  ahnost 
all  primitive  peoples.    The  formidable  title-page 
of  his  book  in  itself  suggests  an  author  keenly  ob- 
servant, accurate  as  to  deteil,  and  possessed  of  a 


THE  TRADER  «l 

versatile  and  substantial  mind.  Most  <^  the  pages 
were  written  in  the  towns  of  the  Chickasaws,  with 
whom  he  lived  "as  a  fri<md  and  brother,"  but  from 
whose  "  natural  jealousy  "  aid  "  prying  disposition  " 
he  was  obliged  to  conceal  his  papers.  **  Never," 
he  assures  us,  "was  a  literar>'  work  begun  and 
carried  on  with  more  disadvantages!" 

Despite  these  disabilities  the  aut'  »r  wrote  a 
book  of  absorbing  interest.  His  intimate  sym- 
pathetic pictures  of  Indian  life  as  it  was  before  the 
tribes  had  been  conquered  are  richly  valuable  to 
the  lover  of  native  lore  and  to  the  student  of  the 
history  of  white  .settlement.  The  author  believes, 
as  he  must,  in  the  supremacy  of  his  own  race,  but 
he  nevertheless  presents  the  Indians'  side  of  the 
argument  as  no  man  could  who  had  not  made 
himself  one  of  them.  He  thereby  adds  interest 
to  those  fierce  struggles  which  took  place  along 
the  border;  for  he  shows  us  the  red  warrior  not  as 
a  mere  brute  with  a  tomahawk  but  as  u  human 
creature  with  an  ideal  of  his  own,  albeit  an  ideal 
that  must  give  place  to  a  better.  Even  in  view  of 
the  red  man's  hideous  methods  of  battle  and  in- 
human treatment  of  captives,  we  cannot  ponder  un- 
moved. Adair's  description  of  his  preparations  for 
war  —  the  fasting,  the  abstention  from  all  family 


m 


4  ' 


i\ 


68    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
intercourse,  and  the  purification  rit«.  and  prayers 
for  three  days  in  the  house  »et  apart,  while  the 
women,  who  might  not  come  close  to  their  men  in 
this  fateful  hour,  stood  throughout  th^  night  till 
dawn  chanting  before  the  door.    Another  poetic 
touch  the  author  gives  us.  from  the  Cherokee  —  or 
Cheerakeas  he  spells  it    -  explaining  that  the  root, 
chee-ra.  means  fire.    A  Cherokee  never  extinguished 
fire  Have  on  the  w-oasion  of  adeatii.  when  he  thrust 
a  burning  torch  into  the  water  and    aid,  Neetah  in- 
tahah  ~~  -the  days  appointed  hin.    .ere  finished." 
The  warrior  slain  in  battle  was  held  to  have  Wn 
l>alan«Kl  by  death  and  it  was  sai<i  of  him  that  "he 
was  weighed  on  the  path  and  made  light."     Adair 
writes  that  the  Cherokees,  until  corrupted  by  French 
agents  and  by  the  later  class  of  traders  who  poured 
rum  among  them  like  water,  were  honest,  industri- 
ous, and  friendly.     They  were  ready  to  meet  the 
white  man  with  their  customary  phrase  of  good  will: 
"I  shall  firmly  shake  hands  with  your  speech." 
He  -as  intimately  associated  with  this  tribe  from 
1735  to  1744.  when  he  di%ertt!d  his  mtivities  to 
the  Chickasaws. 

It  was  from  the  Cherokees'  chief  town.  Great 
Telliko.  in  the  Appalachians,  that  Adair  explored 
the  mountains.    He  describes  the  pass  through  the 


n 


THE  TRADER  63 

chain  which  wiui  used  by  the  Indians  and  which, 
from  his  outline  of  it,  was  probably  the  Cumber- 
land  Gap.  He  relates  many  incidents  of  the  strug- 
gle with  the  French  —  manifestations  even  in  this 
remote  wilderness  of  the  vast  conflict  that  was  be- 
ing waged  for  the  New  World  by  two  imperial 
nations  of  the  Old. 

Adair  undertook,  at  the  solicitation  of  (iover- 
nor  Glen  of  South  Carolina,  the  dangerous  task  of 
opening  up  trade  with  the  Choctaws,  a  tribe  mus- 
tering upwards  of  five  thousand  warriors  who  were 
wholly  in  the  French  interest.  Their  country  lay 
in  what  is  now  the  State  of  Mississippi  along  the 
great  river,  some  seven  hundred  miles  west  and 
southwest  of  Charleston.  After  passing  the  friendly 
Creek  towns  the  trail  led  on  for  150  miles  through 
what  was  practically  the  enemy's  country.  Adair, 
owing  to  what  he  likes  to  term  his  "usual  good 
fortune,"  reached  the  Choctaw  country  safely  and 
by  his  adroitness  and  substantial  presents  won  the 
friendship  of  the  influential  chief,  Red  Shoe,  whom 
he  found  in  a  receptive  mood,  owing  to  a  French 
agent's  breach  of  hospitality  involving  Red  Shoe's 
favorite  wife.  Adair  thus  created  a  large  pro- 
English  faction  among  the  Choctaws,  and  his  suc- 
cess seriously  impaired  French  prestige  with  all 


Hi 


5! 


MKXOCOPV   RfSOlUTION   TIST   CHART 

(ANSI  ond  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


^    /^PPUEDIN/MGE 


1653   EosI   Main   Sire*) 

Roch«stef.   New  York        14609       U5* 

(716)   482  -  0300  -  Phon. 

(716)  288  -  5989  -  To. 


64  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
the  southwestern  tribes.  Several  times  French 
Choctaws  bribed  to  murder  him,  waylaid  Adair  on 
the  trail  — twice  when  he  was  alone  — only  to  be 
baffled  by  the  imperturbable  self-possession  and 
alert  wit  which  never  failed  him  in  emergencies. 

Winning  a  Choctaw  trade  cost  Adair,  besides  at- 
tacks on  his  life,  £2200,  for  which  he  was  never  re- 
imbursed, notwithstanding  Governor  Glen's  agree- 
ment with  him.    And,  on  his  return  to  Charleston, 
while  the  Governor  was  detaining  him  "on  one 
pretext  or  another,"  he  found  that  a  new  expedi- 
tion, »,hich  the  Governor  was  favoring  for  reasons 
of  his  own,  had  set  out  to  capture  his  Chickasaw 
trade  and  gather  in  "the  expected  great  crop  of 
deerskins  and  beaver  .  .  .  before  I  could  possi- 
bly return  to  the  Chikkasah  Country."    Nothing 
daunted,  however,  the  hardy  trader  set  out  alone. 
In  the  severity  of  winter,  frost,  snow,  hail  and  heavy 
rains  succeed  each  other  in  these  climes,  so  that  I  partly 
rode  and  partly  swam  to  the  Chikkasah  country;  for  not 
expecting  to  stay  long  below  [in  Charieston]  I  took  no 
leathern  canoe.     Many  of  the  broad,  deep  creeks  .  .  . 
had  now  overflowed  their  banks,  ran  at  a  rapid  rate  aud 
were  unpassable  to  any  but  desperate  people:  ...  the 
rivers  and  swamps  were  dreadful  by  rafts  of  timber 
driving  down  the  former  and  the  great  fallen  trees 
floating  in  the  latter.  .  .  .    Being  forced  to  wade  deep 
through  cane  swamps  or  woody  thickets,  it  proved  very 


THE  TRADER 


65 


troublesome  to  keep  my  firearms  dry  on  which,  as  a 
second  means,  my  life  depended. 

Nevertheless  Adair  defeated  the  Governor's  at- 
tempt to  steal  his  trade,  and  later  on  published 
the  whole  story  in  the  Charleston  press  and  sent 
in  a  statement  of  his  claims  to  the  Assembly, 
with  frank  observations  on  His  Excellency  him- 
self. We  gather  that  his  bold  disregard  of  High 
Personages  set  all  Charleston  in  an  uproar! 

Adair  is  tantalizingly  modest  about  his  own 
deeds.  He  devotes  pages  to  prove  that  an  Indian 
/ite  agrees  with  the  Book  of  Leviticus  but  only  a 
paragraph  to  an  exploit  of  courage  and  endurance 
such  as  that  ride  and  swim  for  the  Indian  trade. 
We  have  to  read  between  the  lines  to  find  the  man; 
but  he  well  repays  the  search.  Briefly,  incidentally, 
he  mentions  that  on  one  trip  he  was  captured  by 
the  French,  who  were  so 

well  acquainted  with  the  great  damages  I  had  done  to 
them  and  feared  others  I  might  occasion,  as  to  confine 
me  a  close  prisoner  .  .  .  in  the  Alebahma  garrison.  They 
were  fully  resolved  to  have  sent  me  down  to  Mobile  or 
New  Orleans  as  a  capital  criminal  to  be  hanged 
but  I  doubted  not  of  being  able  to  extricate  myself  some  way 
or  other.  They  appointed  double  Gentries  over  me  for 
some  days  before  I  was  to  be  sent  down  in  the  French 
King's  large  boat.    They  were  strongly  charged  against 


511 


il 


I-  i 
1-1 

r 

*  " 


■ 
r 


I 


it 


66 


PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 


laying  down  their  weapons  or  suffering  any  hostile  thing 
to  be  in  the  place  where  I  was  kept,  as  they  deemed  me 

capable  of  any  mischief About  an  hour  before  we 

were  to  set  off  by  water  I  escaped  from  them  by  land. 
...  I  took  through  the  middle  of  the  low  land  covered 
with  briers  at  full  speed.  I  heard  the  French  clatter- 
ing on  horseback  along  the  path  ...  and  the  howling 

savages  pursuing hvt   my   usual  good  fortune 

enabled  me  to  leave  them  far  enough  behind. 

One  feels  that  a  few  of  the  pages  given  up  to  Leviti- 
cus  might  well  have  been  devoted  to  a  detailed 
account  of  tliis  escape  from  "double  centries"  and 
a  fortified  garrison,  and  the  plunge  through  the 
tangled  wilds,  by  a  man  without  gun  or  knife  or 
supplies,  and  who  for  days  dared  not  show  himself 
upon  the  trail. 

There  is  too  much  of  "my  usual  good  fortune" 
i'  Adair's  narrative;  such  luck  as  Jiis  argues  for 
extraordinary  resources  in  the  man.  Sometimes 
we  discover  only  through  one  phrase  on  a  page 
that  he  must  himself  have  been  the  hero  of  an 
event  he  relates  in  the  third  person.  This  seems  to 
be  the  case  in  the  aflFair  of  Priber,  which  was  the 
worst  of  these  "damages  "  Adair  did  to  the  French. 
Priber  was  "a  gentleman  of  curious  and  specula- 
tive temper"  sent  by  the  French  in  1736  to  Great 
Telliko  to  win  the  Cherokees  to  their  interest. 


THE  TRADER 


67 


At  this  time  Adair  was  trading  with  the  Ch'  -o- 
kees.    He  relates  that  Priber, 

more  effectually  to  answer  the  design  of  his  coinuiission 
. .  .  ate,  drank,  slept,  danced,  dressed,  and  painted  .'.im- 
self  with  the  Indians, so thatitwasnoteasytodistinguish 
him  from  the  natives,  —  he  married  also  with  them,  and 
being  endued  with  a  strong  understanding  and  retentive 
memory  he  soon  learned  their  dialect,  and  by  gradual 
advances  impressed  them  with  a  very  ill  opinion  of  the 
English,  representing  them  as  fraudulent,  avaritious  and 
encroaching  people;  he  at  the  same  time  inflated  the 
artless  savages  with  a  prodigious  high  opinion  of  their 
own  importance  in  the  American  scale  of  power. 
Having  thus  infected  them  ...  he  easily  formed  them 
into  a  nominal  republican  government  —  crowned  their 
old  Archi-magus  emperor  after  a  pleasing  new  savage 
form,  and  invented  a  variety  of  high-sounding  titles 
for  all  the  members  of  his  imperial  majesty's  red  court. 

Priber  cemented  the  Cherokee  empire  "by  slow 
but  sure  degn*.s  to  the  ver>'  great  danger  of 
our  southern  colonies."  His  position  was  that  of 
Secretary  of  State  and  as  such,  with  a  studiedly 
provocative  arrogance,  lie  carried  on  correspond- 
ence with  the  British  authorities.  The  colonial 
Government  seems,  on  this  occasion,  to  have 
listened  to  the  traders  and  to  have  realized  that 
Priber  was  a  danger,  for  soldiers  were  sent  to  take 
him  prisoner.     The  Cherokees,  however,  had  so 


I 


I 


68    PIONEERS  OF  THF  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

firmly  "shaked  hands"  with  their  Secretary's  ad- 
mired discourse  that  they  threatened  to  take  the 
warpath  if  their  beloved  man  were  annoyed,  and 
the  soldiers  went  home  without  him  —  to  the  great 
hurt  of  English  prestige.     The  Cherokee  empire 
had  now  endured  for  five  years  and  was  about  to 
rise  "into  a  far  greater  state  of  puissance  by  the 
acquisition  of  ^^-^  Muskohge.  Chocktaw  and  the 
Western  Mississippi  Indians,"  when  fortunately  for 
the  history  of  British  colonization  in  America,  "an 
accident  befell  the  Secretary." 

It  is  in  connection  with  tin's  "accident"  that  the 
reader  suspects  th.  modest  but  resourceful  Adair 
of  conniving  with  Pate.     Since  the  military  had 
failed  and  the  Government  dared  not  again  employ 
force,  other  means  must  be  found;  the  trader  pro- 
videdthem.  The  Secretary  with  his  Cherokee  body- 
guard  journeyed  south  on  his  mission  to  the  Creeks. 
Secure,  as  he  supposed,  he  lodged  overnight  in  an 
Indian  town.    But  fhere  a  company  of  English 
traders  tookhim  into  custody,  along  with  his  bundle 
of  manuscripts  presumably  intended  for  the  French 
commandant  at  Fort  Alabama,  and  handed  him 
oyer  to  the  Governor  of  Georgia,  who  imprisoned 
him  and  kept  him  out  of  mischief  till  he  died. 
As  a  Briton,  Adair  contributed  to  Priber's  fate; 


THE  TRADER 


60 


and  as  such  ht 


I  as  such  he  approves  it.  As  a  scholar  with  philo- 
sophical and  ethnological  leanings,  however,  he  de- 
plores it,  and  hopes  that  Priber's  valuable  manu- 
scripts may  "escape  the  desp^'ling  hands  of  militarj' 
power."  Priber  had  spent  his  leisure  in  compiling 
a  Cherokee  dictionary;  Adair's  occupation,  while 
domiciled  in  his  winter  house  in  Great  Telliko,  was 
the  writing  of  his  Indian  Appendix  to  the  Penta- 
teuch. As  became  brothers  in  science,  they  had  ex- 
changed notes,  so  we  gather  from  Adair's  references 
to  conversations  and  correspondence.  Adair's  diffi- 
culties as  an  author,  however,  had  been  increased 
by  a  treacherous  lapse  from  professional  etiquette 
on  the  part  of  the  Secretary:  "He  told  them  [the 
Indians]  that  in  the  very  same  manner  as  he  was 
their  great  Secretary,  I  was  the  devil's  clerk,  or  an 
accursed  one  who  marked  on  paper  the  bad  speech 
of  the  evil  ones  of  darkness."  On  his  own  part 
Adair  admits  that  his  object  in  this  correspondence 
was  to  trap  the  Secretary  into  something  more  seri- 
ous than  literary  errata.  That  is,  he  admits  it  by  an- 
plication ;  he  says  the  Secretary  "  fea  red  "it.  During 
the  years  of  their  duel,  Adair  upparentlj-  knew 
that  the  scholarly  compiler  of  the  Cherokee  dic- 
tionary was  secretly  inciting  members  of  this  par- 
ticular Lost  Tribe  to  tomahawk  the  discoverer  of 


70     PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

their  biblical  origin;  and  I'liber,  it  would  seem, 
knew  that  he  knew! 

Adair  show.s,  inferentially,  that  land  encroach- 
ment was  not  the  sole  cause  of  those  Indian  wars 
with  which  we  shall  deal  in  a  later  chapter.  The 
earliest  causes  were  the  instigations  of  the  French 
and  the  rewards  which  they  offerer!  for  English 
scalps.  But  equally  provocative  of  Indian  ran- 
cor were  the  acts  of  sometimes  merely  stupid, 
sometimes  dishonest,  officials;  the  worst  of  these. 
Adair  considered,  was  the  cheapening  of  the  trade 
through  the  granting  of  general  licenses. 

Formerly  each  trader  had  a  license  for  two  [Indian]  towns. 
...  At  my  first  setting  out  among  them,  a  number  of 
traders  .  .  .  journeyed  through  our  various  nations  in 
different  companies  and  were  generally  men  of  worth ;  of 
course  they  would  have  a  living  price  for  their  goods, 
which  they  carried  on  horseback  to  the  remote  Indian 
countries  ut  very  great  expences.  .  .  .  [The  Indians] 
were  kept  under  proper  restraint,  were  easy  in  their 
minds  and  peaceable  on  account  of  the  plain,  honest 
lessons  daily  inculcated  oa  them  ...  but  according  to 
the  present  unwise  plan,  two  and  even  three  Arablike 
peddlars  sculk  about  in  one  of  those  villages  .  .  .  who 
are  generally  the  dregs  and  off-scourings  of  our  clime.<« 
...  by  inebriating  the  Indians  with  their  nominally 
prohibited  and  poisoning  spirits,  they  purchase  the 
necessaries  of  life  at  four  and  five  hundred  per  cent 


THE  TRADER  71 

cheai>cr  than  the  orderly  traders.  .  .  .  Insteatl  of  show- 
ing good  examples  of  moral  conduct,  beside  the  other 
part  of  life,  they  instruct  the  unknowing  an<J  i^aitat- 
ing  savages  in  many  diabolical  lessons  of  obs<enity 
and  blasphemy. 

In  these  statements,  contemporary  records  lK«ar 
him  out.  There  is  no  sadder  reading  than  the 
many  pleas  addressed  by  the  Indian  chiefs  to  vari- 
ous officials  to  stop  the  importation  of  liquor  into 
their  country,  alleging  the  debauchnu'nt  of  their 
young  men  and  warning  the  white  man,  with  whom 
they  desired  to  be  friends,  that  in  an  Indian  <lrink 
and  blood  lust  quickly  combined. 

Adair's  book  was  published  in  London  in  1775. 
He  wrote  it  to  be  read  by  Englishmen  as  well  as 
Americans;  and  some  of  his  reflections  on  liberty, 
justice,  and  Anglo-Saxon  unity  would  not  sountl  un- 
worthily today.  His  sympathies  were  with  "the 
principles  of  our  Magna  Charta  Americana";  but 
he  thought  the  threatened  division  of  the  Eng- 
lish-speakin"  .conies  the  greatest  evil  that  could 
befall  civil:  flis  voluminous  work  discloses 

a  man  not    -.}'■  ide  mental  outlook  but  a  prac- 

tical man  wi^u  a  sense  of  commercial  values.  Yet, 
instead  of  making  a  career  for  himself  among  his 
own  caste,  he  made  his  home  for  over  thirty  years 


7«    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
in  the  Chickasaw  towns;  and  it  is  plain  that,  with 
the  exception  of  some  of  his  older  b-other  traders, 
he  preferred  the  Chickasaw  lo  any  other  society. 
I  he  complete  explanation  of  such  men  as  Adair 
we  need  not  expect  to  find  stated  nnywhere  -  not 
even  in  and  between  the  lines  of  his  !>ook.    The 
conventionalist  would  seek  it  in  moral  obliquity; 
the  radical,  in  a  temperament  thet  is  irked  by  the 
superficialities  that  comprise  so  large  a  part  of 
conventional  standards.    The  reason  for  his  being 
what  he  was  is  almost  the  only  thing  Adair  did  not 
analyze  in  his  book.    Perhaps,  to  him,  it  was  self- 
evident.    We  may  let  it  be  so  to  us,  and  see  it  most 
clearly  presented  in  a  picture  'imposed  from  some 
of  his  brief  sketches:    A  land  of  grass  and  green 
shade  inset  with  bright  waters,  where  deer  and 
domestic  cattle  herded  together  along  the  banks; 
a  circling  group  of  houses,  their  white-clayed  walb 
sparkling  under  the  sun's  rays,  and,  within  and 
without,  the  movement  of  "a  friendly  and  saga- 
cious people,"  who  "kindly  treated  and  watch- 
fully guarded"  their  white  brother  in  peace  and 
war,  and  who  conversed  daily  with  him  in  the 
Old  Beloved  Speech  learned  first  of  Nature.    "  Like 
towers  in  cities  beyond  the  common  size  of  those 
of  the  Indians"  rose  the  winter  and  summer  houses 


if 

5?, 


THE  TRADER  78 

and  the  huge  trading  house  which  the  tribe  had 
built  for  their  best  beloved  friend  in  the  town's 
center,  because  there  h«'  would  be  safest  from  at- 
tack.   On  the  rafters  hung  the  smoked  and  bar- 
becued .'rlicacies  taken  in  the  hunt  and  prepared 
for  him  by  his  red  servants,  who  were  also  his  com- 
rades at  home  and  on  the  dangerc  is  Jrail.     "He- 
loved  old  women"  kept  an  eye  on  his  small  sons, 
put  to  drowse  on  panther  skms  so  that  they  nnght 
grow  up  brave  warriors.     Nothing  was  there  of 
artifice  or  pretense,  only  "the  needful  things  to 
make  a  reasonable  life  happy."    All  was  as  primi- 
tive, naive,  and  contented  as  the  woman  whose 
outline  is  given  once  in  a  few  strokes,  proudly  and 
gayly  penciled:  "I  have  the  pleasure  of  writing 
this  by  the  side  of  a  Chikkasah  femah'.  as  great  a 
princess  as  ever  lived  among  the  ancient  Peruvians 
or  Mexicans,  and  she  bids  me  be  sure  not  to  mark 
the  paper  wrong  after  the  manner  of  most  of  the 
traders;  otherwise  it  will  spoil  the  making'  good 
hrcwd  or  homony!" 

His  final  chapter  is  the  last  news  of  James  Adair, 
type  of  the  earliest  trader.  )id  his  bold  attacks 
on  corrupt  officials  and  ruin  i>e<i<ners  —  made  pub- 
licly before  Assemblies  an<l  in  print  —  raise  for 
him  a  dense  cloud  of  enmity  that  dropped  oblivion 


i\ 


74     PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

on  hi>Mnemory?  Perhaps.  But.  in  truth,  his  own 
book  i>.  all  the  history  of  him  we  need.  It  is  the 
record  vf  a  man.  He  lived  a  full  life  and  served 
his  day;  and  it  matters  not  that  a  mist  envelops 
the  place  where  unafraid  he  met  the  Last  Enemy, 
was  "weighed  on  the  path  and  made  light." 


CHAFrKR  IV 

THE    PAH8IN(J    OF    TIIK    FHBNCII    PKRIL 

The  great  pile  of  the  Appaluchiun  peaks  was  not 
the  only  barrier  which  held  back  the  .settkT  with 
his  plough  and  his  rifle  from  following  the  trader's 
tinkling  caravans  into  the  valleys  beyond.  Over 
the  hills  the  French  were  lords  of  *i.  land.  The 
frontiersman  had  already  felt  their  enmity  through 
the  torch  and  tomahawk  of  their  savage  allies. 
By  his  own  strength  alone  he  could  not  cope  with 
the  power  entrenched  beyond  the  hills;  .so  he  halted. 
But  that  power,  by  its  unachievable  desire  to  be 
overlord  of  two  hem  ispheres,  was  i  tsel  f  to  precipi  tji  t  e 
events  which  would  open  the  westward  roa<l. 

The  recurring  hour  in  the  cycle  of  history,  when 
the  issue  of  Autocracy  against  Democracy  cleaves 
the  world,  struck  for  the  men  of  the  eighteenth 
century  as  the  second  half  of  that  century  dav  n»  1. 
In  our  own  day,  happily,  that  issue  has  been 
perceived  by  the  rank  and  file  of  the  people.     In 

75 


■   il 


76    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

those  darker  days,  as  France  and  England  grap- 
pled  in  that  conflict  of  systems  which  culminated 
in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples  at  stake  were  clear  to  only  a  handful  of 
thinking  men. 

But  abstractions,  whether  clear  or  obscure,  do 
not  cause  ambassadors  to  demand  their  passp<irts. 
The  declaration  of  war  awaits  the  overt  act.    Be- 
hold, then,  how  great  a  matter  is  kindled  by  a  little 
fire!    The  cams  beUi  between  Prance  and  England 
m  the  Seven  Years'  War  -  the  war  which  humbled 
France  in  Europe  and  lost  her  India  and  Canada  — 
had  to  do  with  a  small  log  fort  built  by  a  few  Vir- 
ginians in  1754  at  the  Porks  of  the  Ohio  River  and 
wrested  from  them  in  the  same  year  by  a  company 
of  Frenchmen  from  Canada. 

The  French  claimed  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  as  their 
territory;theEnglishcIaimed  itastheirs.    Thedis- 
pute  was  of  long  standing.     The  French  claim  was 
based  on  discovery;  the  English  claim,  on  the  sea- 
to-sea  charters  of  Virginia  and  other  colonies  and 
on  treaties  with   the  Six  Nations.    The  French 
refused  to  admit   the  right  of  the  Six  Nations 
to  dispose  of  the  territory.     The  English  were 
inclined  to  maintain  the  validity  of  their  treaties 
with  the  Indians.      Especially   was  Virginia  so 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRENCH  PERIL  77 

inclined,  for  a  large  share  of  the  Ohio  lay  within  her 
chartered  domain. 

The  quarrel  had  entered  its  acute  phase  in  1749, 
when  both  the  rival  claimants  took  action  to  assert 
their  sovereignty.  The  Governor  of  Canada  sent 
an  envoy,  Celoron  de  Blainville,  with  soldiers,  to 
take  formal  possession  of  the  Ohio  for  the  King  of 
France.  In  the  same  year  the  English  organized 
in  Virginia  the  Ohio  Company  for  the  coloniza- 
tion of  the  same  country;  and  summoned  Chris- 
topher Gist,  explorer,  trader,  and  guide,  from  his 
home  on  the  Yadkin  and  dispatched  him  to  survey 
the  land. 

Then  appeared  on  the  scene  that  extraordinary 
man,  Robert  Dinwiddie,  Lieutenant  Governor  of 
Virginia,  erstwhile  citizen  of  Glasgow.  His  corre- 
spondence from  Virginia  during  his  seven  years* 
tenure  of  office  (1751-58)  depicts  the  man  with  a 
vividness  surpassing  paint.  He  was  as  honest  as 
the  day  —  as  honest  as  he  was  fearless  and  fussy. 
But  he  had  no  patience;  he  wanted  things  done 
and  done  at  once,  and  his  way  was  the  way  to  do 
them.  People  who  did  not  think  as  he  thought 
didn't  think  at  all.  On  this  drastic  premise  he 
went  to  work.  There  was  of  course  continuous 
friction  between  him  and  the  House  of  Burgesses. 


i 


<i 


78    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
Dinwiddle  had  all  a  Scot's  native  talent  for  sar- 
casm.   His  letters,  his  addresses,  perhaps  in  par- 
ticular his  addresses  to  the  House,  bristled  with 
satirical  thrusts  at  his  opponents.   If  he  had  spelled 
out  in  full  all  the  words  he  was  so  eager  to  write, 
he  would  have  been  obliged  to  lessen  his  output; 
so  he  used  a  shorthand  system  of  his  own,  peculiar 
enough  to  be  remarkable  even  though  abbrevia- 
tions were  the  rule  in  that  day.    Even  the  dignity 
of  Kings  he  sacrificed  to  speed,  and  we  find  "His 
Majesty"  abbreviated  to  "H  M'y ";  yet  a  smaller 
luminary  known  as  "His  Honor"  fares  better, 
losing  only  the  last  letter  —  "His  Hono."    "Ho." 
stands  for  "house"  and  "yt"  for  "that, "  "what, " 
"it, "  and  "anything  else, "  as  convenient.    Many 
of  his  letters  wind  up  with  "I  am  ve'y  much 
fatig'd."    We  know  that  he  must  have  been ! 

It  was  a  formidable  task  that  confronted  Din- 
widdle —  to  possess  and  defend  the  Ohio.  Chris- 
topher Gist  returned  in  1751,  having  surveyed  the 
valley  for  the  Ohio  Company  as  far  as  the  Scioto 
and  Miami  rivers,  and  in  the  following  year  the 
survey  was  ratified  by  the  Indians.  The  Com- 
pany's men  were  busy  blazing  trails  through  the 
territory  and  building  fortified  posts.  But  the 
French  dominated  the  territory.    They  had  built 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRENCH  PERIL  79 

and  occupied  with  troops  Fort  Le  Boeuf  on  French 
Creek,  a  stream  flowing  into  the  Allegheny.  We 
may  imagine  Dinwiddle's  rage  at  this  violation  of 
British  soil  by  French  soldiers  and  how  he  must 
have  sputtered  to  the  young  George  Washington, 
when  he  summoned  that  ofl5cer  and  made  him  the 
bearer  of  a  letter  to  the  French  commander  at 
Fort  Le  Bceuf,  to  demand  that  French  troops  be 
at  once  withdrawn  from  the  Ohio. 

Washington  made  the  journey  to  Fort  Le  Boeuf 
in  December,  1753,  but  the  mission  of  course 
proved  fruitless.  Dinwiddie  then  wrote  to  London 
urging  that  a  force  be  sent  over  to  help  the  colo- 
nies maintain  their  rights  and,  under  orders  from 
the  Crown,  suggested  by  himself,  he  wrote  to  the 
governors  of  all  the  other  colonies  to  join  with  Vir- 
ginia in  raising  troops  to  settle  the  ownership  of 
the  disputed  territory.  From  Governor  Dobbs 
of  North  Carolina  he  received  an  immediate  re- 
sponse. By  means  of  logic,  sarcasm,  and  the  entire 
force  of  his  prerogatives,  Dinwiddie  secured  from 
his  own  balking  Assembly  £10,000  with  which  to 
raise  troops.  From  Maryland  he  obtained  nothing. 
There  were  three  prominent  Marylanders  in  the 
Ohio  Company,  but  —  or  because  of  this  —  the 
Maryland  Assembly  voted  down  the  measure  for 


fl 


80    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
a  military  appropriation.    On  June  18, 1754,  Din- 
widdie  wrote,  with  unusually  full  spelling  for  him: 

I  am  perswaded  had  His  Majesty's  Com'ds  to  the  other 
Colonies  been  duely  obey'd,  and  the  necessary  Assist- 
ance given  by  them,  the  Fr.  wou'd  have  long  ago  have 
been  oblig'd  entirely  to  have  evacuated  their  usurp'd 
Possession  of  the  King's  Lands,  instead  of  w'ch  they 
are  daily  becoming  more  formidable,  whilst  every  Gov't 
except  No.  Caro.  has  amus'd  me  with  Expectations 
that  have  proved  fruitless,  and  at  length  refuse  to  give 
any  Supply,  unless  in  such  a  manner  as  must  render  it 
ineffectual. 

This  saddened  mood  with  its  deliberate  penman- 
ship did  not  last  long.  Presently  Dinwiddle  was 
making  a  Round  Robin  of  himself  in  another  series 
of  letters  to  Governors,  Councilors,  and  Assembly- 
men, frantically  beseeching  them  for  "H.  M'y's 
bono."  and  their  own,  and,  if  not,  for  "post'r'ty," 
to  rise  against  the  cruel  French  whose  Indians  were 
harrying  the  borders  again  and  "Basely,  like  Vir- 
min,  stealing  and  carrying  oflF  the  helpless  infant" 
—  as  nice  a  simile,  by  the  way,  as  any  Sheridan 
ever  put  into  the  mouth  of  Mrs.  Malaprop. 

Dinwiddle  saw  his  desires  thwarted  on  every 
hand  by  the  selfish  spirit  of  localism  and  jealousy 
which  was  more  rife  in  America  in  those  days  than 
it  is  today.    Though  the  phrase  "capitalistic  war  " 


I 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRENCH  PERIL  81 
had  not  yet  been  coined,  the  great  issues  of  English 
civilization  on  this  continent  were  befogged,  for  the 
majority  in  the  colonies,  by  the  trivial  fact  that 
the  shareholders  in  the  Ohio  Company  stood  to  win 
by  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  and  to  lose  if 
it  were  not  prosecuted  at  all.  The  irascible  Gover- 
nor, however,  proceeded  with  such  men  and  means 
as  he  could  obtain. 

And  now  in  the  summer  of  1754  came  the  "overt 
act"  which  precipitated  the  inevitable  war.    The 
key  to  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  was  the  tongue  of 
land  at  the  Forks,  where  the  Allegheny  and  the 
Monongahela  jom  their  waters  in  the  Beautiful 
River.    This  site  —  today  Pittsburgh  —  if  occu- 
pied and  held  by  either  nation  would  give  that 
nation  the  command  of  the  Ohio.   Occupied  it  was 
for  a  brief  hour  by  a  small  party  of  Virginians,  un- 
der Captain  William  Trent;  but  no  sooner  had  they 
erected  on  the  spot  a  crude  fort  than  the  French 
descended  upon  them.     What  happened  then  all 
the  world  knows:  how  the  French  built  on  the  cap- 
tured site  their  great  Fort  Duquesne;  how  George 
Washington  with  an  armed  force,  sent  by  Din- 
widdie  to  recapture  the  place,  encountered  French 
and  Indians  at  Great  Meadows  and  built  Fort 
Necessity,  which  he  was  compelled  to  surrender; 


■  i 


88    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

how  in  the  next  year  (1755)  General  Braddock  ar- 
rived from  across  the  sea  and  set  out  to  take  Fort 
Duquesne,  only  to  meet  on  the  way  the  disaster 
called  "Braddock's  Defeat";  and  how,  before 
another  year  had  passed,  the  Seven  Years'  War 
was  raging  in  Europe,  and  England  was  allied 
with  the  enemies  of  France. 

From  the  midst  of  the  debacle  of  Braddock's 
defeat  rises  the  figure  of  the  young  Washington. 
Twenty-three  he  was  then,  tall  and  spare  and  hard- 
bodied  from  a  life  spent  largely  in  the  open.  When 
Braddock  fell,  this  Washington  appeared.  Reck- 
less of  the  enemy's  bullets,  which  spanged  about 
him  and  pierced  his  clothes,  he  dashed  up  and  down 
the  lines  in  an  effort  to  rally  the  panic-stricken 
redcoats.  He  was  too  late  to  save  the  day,  but 
not  to  save  a  renmant  of  the  army  and  bring  out . 
his  own  Virginians  in  good  order.  Whether  among 
the  stay-at-homes  and  voters  of  credits  there  were 
some  who  would  have  ascribed  Washington's  con- 
duct on  that  day  to  the  fact  that  his  brothers 
were  large  shareholders  in  the  Ohio  Company  and 
that  Fort  Duquesne  was  their  personal  property  or 
"private  interest, "  history  does  not  say.  We  may 
suppose  so. 

North  Carolina,  the  one  colony  which  had  not 


THE  PASSING  OP  THE  FRENCH  PERIL  83 
"amus'd"  the  Governor  of  Virginia  "with  Expec- 
tations that  proved  fruitless,"  had  voted  £12,000 
for  the  war  and  had  raise<l  two  companies  of  troops. 
One  of  these,  under  Edward  Brice  Dobbs,  son  of 
Governor  Dobbs,  marched  with  Braddock;  and  in 
that  company  as  wagoner  went  Daniel  Boone, 
then  in  his  twenty-second  year.    Of  Boone's  part 
in  Braddock's  campaign  nothing  more  is  recorded 
save  that  on  the  march  he  made  friends  with  John 
Findlay,  the  trader,  his  future  guide  into  Ken- 
tucky; and  that,  on  the  day  of  the  defeat,  when  his 
wagons  were  surrounded,  he  escaped  by  slashing 
the  harness,  leaping  on  the  back  of  one  of  his  horses, 
and  dashing  into  the  forest. 

Meanwhile  the  southern  tribes  along  the  border 
were  comparatively  quiet.    That  they  well  knew 
a  colossal  struggle  between  the  two  white  races 
was  pending  and  were  predisposed  to  ally  them- 
selves with  the  stronger  is  not  to  be  doubted. 
French  influence  had  long  been  sifting  through 
the  formidable  Cherokee  nation,  which  still,  how- 
ever, held  true  in  the  main  to  its  treaties  with  the 
English.     It  was  the  policy  of  the  Governors  of 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  to  induce  the  Chero- 
kees  to  enter  strongly  into  the  war  as  allies  of  the 


84  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
English.  Their  efforts  came  to  nothing  chiefly  be- 
cause of  the  purely  local  and  suicidal  Indian  policy 
of  Governor  Glen  of  South  Carolina.  There  had 
been  some  dispute  between  (ilen  and  Dinwiddle 
as  to  the  right  of  Virginia  to  trade  with  the  Chero- 
kees;  and  Glen  had  sent  to  the  tribes  letters  cal- 
culated to  sow  distrust  of  all  other  aspirants  for 
Indian  favor,  even  promising  that  certain  settlers 
in  the  Back  Country  of  North  Carolina  should  be 
removed  and  their  holdings  restored  to  the  Indians. 
These  letters  caused  great  indignation  in  North 
Carolina,  when  they  came  to  light,  and  had  the 
worst  possible  effect  upon  Indian  relations.  The 
Indians  now  inclined  their  ear  to  the  French  who, 
though  fewer  than  the  English,  were  at  least  united 
in  purpose. 

Governor  Glen  took  this  inauspicious  moment  to 
hold  high  festival  with  the  Cherokees.  It  was  the 
last  year  of  his  administration  and  apparently  he 
hoped  to  win  promotion  to  some  higher  post  by 
showing  his  achievements  for  the  fur  trade  and  in 
the  matter  of  new  land  acquired.  He  plied  the 
Cherokees  with  drink  and  induced  them  to  make 
formal  submission  and  to  cede  all  their  lands  to  the 
Crown.  When  the  chiefs  recovered  their  sobriety, 
they  were  filled  with  rage  at  what  had  been  done, 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRENCH  PERIL  85 

and  they  renicmbcml  how  the  French  had  told 
them  that  the  Englisli  intended  to  make  slaves  of 
all  the  Indians  and  to  steal  their  lands.  The  situa- 
tion was  complicated  by  another  incitlent.  Sev- 
eral Cherokee  warriors  returning  from  the  Ohio, 
whither  they  had  gone  to  fight  for  the  British,  were 
slain  by  frontiersmen.  The  tribe,  in  accordance 
with  existing  agreements,  applied  to  Virginia  for 
redress  —  but  received  none. 

There  was  thus  plen  ty  of  powder  for  an  explosion. 
Governor  Lyttleton,  Glen's  successor,  at  last  flung 
the  torch  into  the  magazine.    He  seized,  as  hos- 
tages, a  number  of  friendly  chiefs  who  were  coming 
to  Charleston  to  offer  tokens  of  good  will  and 
forced  them  to  march  under  guard  on  a  military 
tour  which  the  Governor  was  making  (1759)  with 
intent  to  overawe  the  savages.    When  this  expedi- 
tion reached  Prince  George,  on  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Savannah,  the  Indian  hostages  were  con- 
fined within  the  fort;  and  the  Governor,  satisfied 
with  the  result  of  his  maneuver  departed  south  for 
Charleston.    Then  followed  a  tragedy.    Some  In- 
dian friends  of  the  imprisoned  chiefs  attacked  the 
fort,  and  the  commander,  a  popular  young  officer, 
was  treacherously  killed  during  a  parley.    The  in- 
furiated frontiersmen  within  the  fort  fell  upon  the 


)l=. 


L 


86    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

hostages  and  slew  them  all  —  twenty-six  chiefs  — 
and  the  Indian  war  was  on. 

If  all  were  to  be  told  of  the  struggle  which  fol- 
lowed in  the  Back  Country,  the  story  could  not  be 
contained  in  this  book.  Many  brave  and  resourceful 
men  went  out  against  the  savages.     We  can  afford 
only  a  passing  glance  at  one  of  them.    Hugh  Wad- 
dell  of  \orth  Carolina  was  the  most  brilliant  of  all 
the  frontier  fighters  in  that  war.    He  was  a  young 
Ulsterman  from  County  Down,  a  bom  soldier,  with 
a  special  genius  for  fighting  Indians,  although  he  did 
not  grow  up  on  the  border,  for  he  arrived  in  North 
Carolina  in  1753,  at  the  age  of  nineteen.    He  was 
appointed  by  Governor  Dobbs  to  command  the 
second  company  which  North  Carolina  had  raised 
for  the  war,  a  force  of  450  rangers  to  protect  the  bor- 
der counties ;  and  he  presently  became  the  most  con- 
spicuous military  figure  in  the  colony.     As  to  his 
personality,  we  have  only  a  few  meager  details,  with 
a  portrait  th  t  suggests  plainly  enough  those  quali- 
ties of  boldness  and  craft  which  characterized  his 
tactics.  Governor  Dobbs  appears  to  have  had  a  spe- 
cial love  towards  Hugh,  whose  family  he  had  known 
in  Ireland,  for  an  undercurrent  of  almost  fatherly 
pride  is  to  be  found  in  the  old  Governor's  reports  to 
the  Assembly  concerning  Waddell's  exploits. 


I    J 
j    1 


THE  PASSING  OP  THE  PRENCH  PERIL  87 
The  terror  raged  for  nearly  thrtn-  year=     Cabins 
and  fields  were  burned,  and  wom-n  ana  children 
were  slaughtered  or  dragged  away  captives.    Not 
only  did  immigration  cease  but  many  hardy  settlers 
fled  from  the  country.     At  length,  after  horrors 
indescribable  and  great  toll  of  life,  the  Cherokees 
gave  up  the  struggle.    Their  towns  were  "  "aded 
and  laid  waste  by  imperial  aiid  colonial  troops,  and 
they  could  do  nothing  but  make  peace.    In  1761 
they  signed  a  treaty  with  the  English  to  hold 
"while  .ivers  flow  and  grasses  grow  and  sun  and 
rooun  endure." 


In  the  previous  year  (1760)  the  imperial  war 
had  run  its  course  in  America.  New  France  lay 
prostrate,  and  the  English  were  supreme  not  only 
on  the  Ohio  but  on  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the 
Great  Lakes.  Louisbourg.  Quebec,  Montreal,  Os- 
wego, Niagara,  Duquesne,  Detroit  —  all  were  in 
English  hands. 

Hugh  Waddell  and  his  rangers,  besides  serving 
with  distinction  in  the  Indian  war,  had  taken 
part  in  the  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne.  This  feat 
had  been  accomplished  in  1758  by  an  expedition 
under  General  Fc  jes.  The  troops  made  a  terri- 
ble march  over  a  new  route,  cutting  a  road  as  they 


I 


88    PIONEEIS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

wrnl.    It  was  Novombt-r  wlun  thry  approucluW 
Ihfir  ol.j,f liv...     Tht.  wnslos  of  snow  »ncj  Jiuir 
diniinisluti  mui»pIiVm  niuswi  such  .It-pression  himoii^ 
the  iiirn  that  the  officers  calUnJ  a  hall  to  discuss 
whether  or  not  to  proceed  toward  Port  I)uc|u«snc, 
where  they  lieheved  the  French  to  Uconcentrat.d 
in  force.    Extravagant  sums  in  guineas  were  naint  d 
as  suitahk-  reward  for  any  man  who  would  stalk 
an<l  catch  a  French  Indian  and  learn  from  him  tJie 
rea!  conditions  inside  the  fort.    The  honor,  if  not 
the  guineas,  fell  to  John  Rogers,  one  of  Waddell's 
rangers.    From  the  Indian  it  was  leamt'd  that  the 
Frei.Ji  had  already  gon<N  leaving  Ixhind  only  a 
few  of  their  number.    As  the  English  drew  near, 
they  found  that  the  garrison  ha<l  blown  uj)  the 
magazine,  set  fire  to  the  fort,  and  made  off. 

Thus,  while  New  France  was  already  tott«Ting. 
but  nearly  two  years  before  the  final  capitulation  at 
Montreal,  the  English  again  btx-ame  masters  of  the 
Ohio  Company's  land  —  masters  of  the  Forks  of  the 
Ohio.  This  time  they  were  there  to;;tay.  Where 
the  walls  of  Fort  Duquesne  had  crumbled  in  the  fire 
Fort  Pitt  was  to  rise,  proudly  bearing  the  name 
of  England's  Great  Commoner  who  had  directed 
Enj^lish  arms  to  victory  on  three  continents. 
With  France  expelled  and  the  Indians  deprived 


I 


m 


1] 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FREN(  il  PERIL  80 

of  their  whito  ullifs,  tlu'  wtstwunl  imtli  lay  open 
to  the  f)iun(Trs,  vwn  thouf^h  tlie  ri'«|  mun  liiniMflf 
wmild  ri.st'  itguin  and  a^ain  in  vain  rmlcuvur  to  Imr 
llio  Way.  S<»  a  new  «'ru  bf^in.s,  llir  iTa  of  <'Xplora- 
tion  for  (ivfinitc  purfMxsi'.  Ilir  vru  of  coninionwcaltli 
i>uildinK>  In  entering  on  if.  wv  part  with  Iht*  «'ar- 
lifst  pioncor  —  the  tra<h'r.  who  first  oponctl  Ihr 
road  for  both  thi-  lone  honu*  .swker  and  Ihf  grrat 
land  c'ompany.  Ho  <lwindU'.s  now  to  tlu-  nirn- 
bartercr  and  .so  —  .savr  for  ;i  few  chanco  ffiiuip.st's 
—  slips  out  of  sight,  for  Win  brave  days  as  IiniK'nal 
Scout  arc  done. 


CHAPTER  V 


f  1 


BOONE,  THE  WANDERER 

What  thoughts  filled  Daniel  Boone's  mind  as  he 
was  returning  from  Braddock's  disastrous  cam- 
paign in  1755  we  may  only  conjecture.    Perhaps 
he  was  planning  a  career  of  soldiering,  for  in  later 
years  he  was  to  distinguish  himself  as  a  frontier 
commander  in  both  defense  and  attack.    Or  it  may 
be  that  his  heart  was  full  of  the  wondrous  tales  told 
hin-  by  the  trader,  John  Findlay,  of  that  Hunter's 
Canaan,  Kentucky,  where  buffalo  and  deer  roamed 
in  thousands.    Perhaps  he  meant  to  set  out  ere  long 
in  search  of  the  great  adventure  of  his  dreams,  de- 
spite the  terrible  dangers  of  trail  making  across 
the  zones  of  war  into  the  unknown. 

However  that  may  be,  Boone  straightway  fol- 
lowed  neither  of  these  possible  plans  on  his  return 
to  the  Yadkin  but  halted  for  a  different  adventure. 
There,  a  rifle  shot's  distance  from  his  threshold, 
was  offered  him  the  oldest  and  sweetest  of  all 

90 


li  ( 


Hi  [ 


I 


BOONE,  THE  WANDERER  91 

hazards  to  the  daring.  He  was  twenty-two,  strong 
and  comely  and  a  whole  man;  and  therefore  he 
was  in  no  mind  to  refuse  what  life  held  out  to  him 
in  the  person  of  Rebecca  Bryan.  Rebecca  was 
the  daughter  of  Joseph  Bryan,  who  had  come  to  the 
Yadkin  from  Pennsylvania  some  time  before  the 
Boones;  and  she  was  in  her  seventeenth  year. 

Writers  of  an   earlier  and   more  sentimental 
period  than  ours  have  endeavored  to  supply,  from 
the  saccharine  stores  of  their  fancy,  the  romantic 
episodes  connected  with  Boone's  wooing  which  his- 
tory has  omitted  to  record.     Hence  the  tale  that 
the  young  hunter,  walking  abroad  in  the  spring 
gloaming,  saw  Mistress  Rebecca's  large  dark  eyes 
ihining  in  the  dusk  of  the  forest,  mistook  them  for  a 
deer's  eyes  and  shot  —  his  aim  on  this  occasion 
fortunately  being  bad!    But  if  Boone's  rifle  was 
missing  its  mark  at  ten  paces,  Cupid's  dart  was 
speeding  home.  So  runs  the  story  concocted  a  hun- 
dred years  later  by  some  gentle  scribe  ignorant  alike 
of  game  seasons,  the  habits  of  hunters,  and  the  way 
of  a  man  with  a  maid  in  a  primitive  world. 

Daniel  and  Rebecca  were  married  in  the  spring 
of  1756.  Squire  Boone,  in  his  capacity  as  justice 
of  the  peac  tied  the  knot ;  and  in  u  small  cabin 
built  upon  his  spacious  lands  the  young  couple 


jl 


\t 


92     PIONEERS  OF  TIIE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
set  up  housekeeping.    Here  Daniel's  first  two  sons 
were  bom.    In  the  third  year  of  his  marriage,  when 
the  second  ehild  was  a  babe  in  arms.  Daniel  re- 
move<l  with  his  wife  and  their  young  and  precious 
family  to  Culpeper  County  in  eastern  Virginia,  for 
the  border  was  going  through  ils  darkest  days  of 
the  French  and  Indian  War.    During  the  next  two 
or  three  years  we  find  him  in  Virginia  engaged 
as  a  wagoner,  hauling  tobacco  in  season;  but  back 
on  the  border  with  his  rifle,  after  the  harvest, 
aiding  in  defense  against  the  Indians.     In  1759  he 
purchased  from  his  father  a  lot  on  Sugar  Tree  Creek, 
a  tributary  of  Dutchman's  Creek  (Davie  County, 
North  Caroliua)  and  built  thereon  a  cabin  for  him- 
self.    The  date  when  he  brought  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren to  live  in  their  new  abode  on  the  border  is 
not  recorded.    It  was  probably  some  time  after 
the  close  of  the  Indian  War.    Of  Boone  himself 
during  these  years  we  have  but  scant  informa- 
tion.   We  hear  of  him  again  in  Virginia  and  also  as 
a  member  of  the  pack-hors   caravan  which  brought 
into  the  Back  Country  the  various  necessaries  for 
the  settlers.    We  know,  too,  that  in  the  fall  of  1760 
he  was  on  a  lone  hunting  trip  in  the  mountains 
west  of  the  Yadkin;   for  until  a  few  years  ago 
there  might  be  seen,  still  standing  on  the  banks 


1   I 


^ 


BOONE.  THE  ^y.\NDERER  93 

of  Boone's  Crt-ek  (a  small  tributary  of  tlie  Wa- 
tauga) in  eastern  Tennessee,  a  tree  bearing  the  leg- 
end, "D  Boon  eilletl  A  BAR  on  this  tree  1760." 
Boone  was  always  fond  of  carving  his  exploits 
on  trees,  and  his  wan  lerings  have  been  traced 
largely  by  his  arboreal  publications.  In  the  next 
year  (17G1)  he  went  with  Waddell's  rangers  when 
they  marched  with  the  arm^  lo  the  final  subjuga- 
tion of  the  Cherokee. 

That  Boone  and  his  family  were  back  on  the 
border  in  the  new  cabin  shortly  after  the  end  of  the 
war,  we  gather  from  the  fact  that  in  17G4  he  took 
his  little  son  James,  aged  seven,  on  one  of  his  long 
huntin      .xcursions.    From  this  time  dates  the  in- 
timate comradeship  of  father  and  son  through  all 
the  perils  of  the  wilderness,  a  comradeslup  to  come 
to  its  tragic  end  ten  years  later  when,  as  we  shall 
see,  the  seventeen-year-old  lad  fell  under  the  red 
man's  tomahawk  as  his  father  was  leading  the 
first  settlers  towards  Kentucky.    lu  the  cold  nights 
of  the  open  camp,  as  Daniel  and  James  lay  under 
the  frosty  stars,  the  father  kept  the  boy  warm  snug- 
gled to  his  breast  under  the  broad  flap  of  his  hunting 
shirt.    Sometimes  the  two  were  away  from  home  for 
months  together,  and  Daniel  declat-ed  little  James 
to  be  as  good  a  woodsman  as  his  father. 


r, 


i  i 


,1      i 


;i  ■ 


94    PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Meanwhile  fascinating  accounts  of  the  new  land 
of  Florida,  ceded  to  Britain  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris 
m  1763.  had  leaked  into  the  Back  Country;  and  in 
the  winter  of  1765  Boone  set  off  southward  on 
horseback  with  seven  companions.    Colonel  James 
Grant,  with  whose  army  Boone  had  fought  in  1761, 
had  been  appointed  Governor  of  the  new  colony 
and  was  offering  generous  inducements  to  settlers. 
The  party  traveled  along  the  holders  of  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia.    No  doubt  they  made  the 
greater  part  of  their  way  over  the  old  Traders' 
Trace,  the  "whitened"  warpath;  and  they  suf- 
fered  severe  hardships.    Game  became  scarcer  as 
they  proceeded.    Once  they  were  nigh  to  perishing 
of  starvation  and  were  saved  from  that  fate  only 
through  chance  meeting  with  a  band  of  Indians  who, 
seeing  their  plight,  made  camp  and  shared  their 
food  with  them  —  according  '    the  Indian  code  in 
time  of  peace. 

Boone's  party  explored  Florida  from  St.  Augus- 
tine to  Pensacola,  and  Daniel  became  sufficiently 
enamored  of  the  tropical  souch  to  purchase  there 
land  and  a  house.  His  wife,  however,  was  unwill- 
ing  to  go  to  Florida,  and  she  was  not  long  in  con- 
vincing the  hunter  that  he  would  soon  tire  of  a 
gameless  country.    A  gameless  country!    Perhaps 


BOONE,  THE  WANDERER  95 

this  was  the  very  thought  which  turned  the  wan- 
derer's desires  again  towards  the  land  of  Kentucky. ' 
The  silencing  of  the  enemy's  whisper  in  the  Chero- 
kee camps  had  opened  the  border  forests  once  more 
to  the  nomadic  rifleuiuit.  Boone  was  not  alone  in  the 
desire  to  seek  out  what  lay  beyond.  His  brother-in- 
law,  John  Stewart,  and  a  nephew  by  marriage,  Ben- 
jamin Cutbirth,  or  Cutbird,  with  two  other  young 
men,  John  Baker  and  James  Ward,  in  1766  crossed 
the  Appalachian  Mountains,  probably  by  stumbling 
upon  the  Indian  trail  winding  from  base  to  summit 
and  from  peak  to  base  again  over  this  part  of  the 
great  hill  barrier.  They  eventually  reached  the  Mis- 
sissipoi  River  and,  having  taken  a  good  quantity  of 
peltry  on  the  way,  they  launched  up<ni  the  stream 
and  came  in  time  to  New  Orleans,  wh«;re  they  made 
a  satisfactory  trade  of  their  furs. 

Boone  was  fired  anew  by  descriptions  of  this 
successful  feat,  in  which  two  of  his  kinsmen  had 
participated.  He  could  no  longer  be  held  back. 
He  must  find  the  magic  door  that  led  through  the 
vast  mountain  wall  into  Kentucky  —  Kentucky, 
with  its  green  prairies  where  the  buffalo  and  deer 

'  Kentucky,  from  Ken-ta-ke,  an  Iroquois  word  meaning  "the  place 
of  old  fields."  Adair  calls  the  territory  "the  old  fields."  The  Indians 
apparently  used  the  worJ  "old,"  as  we  do,  in  a  sense  of  endearment 
and  possession  as  '.veil  as  relative  tu  age. 


'Ml 


ii 


96    PIONEERS  OF  TIIE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
were  as  "ten  thousand  thousand  cattle  feeding"  in 
the  wilds,  and  where  the  balmy  air  vibrated  with 
the  music  of  innumerable  wings. 

Accordingly,  in  the  autumn  of  1767,  Boone  began 
his  quest  of  the  delectable  country  in  the  company 
of  his  friend,  William  Hill,  who  had  been  with  him 
in  Florida.    Autumn  was  the  season  of  departure  on 
all  forest  excursions,  because  by  that  time  the  sum- 
mer  crops  had  been  gathered  in  and  thcday  of  the 
deer  had  come.    By  hunting,  the  explorers  must 
feed  themselves  on  their  travels  and  with  deerskins 
and  furs  they  must  on  their  return  recompense 
those  who  had  supplied  their  outfit.     Boone,  the 
incessant  but  not  always  lucky  wanderer,  wL  in 
these  years  ever  in  debt  for  an  outfit. 

Boone  and  Hill  made  their  way  over  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  the  Alleghanies  and  crossed  the  Holston 
and  Clinch  rivers.    Then  they  came  upon  the  west 
fork  of  the  Big  Sandy  and,  believing  that  it  would 
lead  them  to  the  Ohio,  they  continutxl  for  at  least  a 
hundred  miles  to  the  westward.    Here  they  found 
a  buffalo  trace,  one  of  the  many  beaten  out  by 
the  herds  in  their  passage  to  the  salt  springs,  and 
they  followed  it  into  what  is  now  Floyd  County  in 
eastern  Kentucky.     But  this  was  not  the  prairie 
land  described  by  Findlay;  it  was  rough  and  hilly 


BOONE.  THE  WANDERER  97 

and  so  overgrown  with  laurel  as  to  be  almost 
impenetrable.  They  therefore  wended  their  way 
back  towards  the  river,  doubtless  erected  the  usual 
hunter's  camp  of  skins  or  blankets  and  branelns, 
and  spent  the  winter  in  hunting  and  trapping. 
Spring  found  them  returning  to  their  homes  ,  ,  the 
Yadkin  with  a  fair  winter's  haul. 

Such  urgent  desire  as  Boone's,  however,  was  not 
to  be  defeated.    The  next  year  brought  him  liis 
great  opportunity.   John  Findlay  came  to  the  Yad- 
kin with  a  horse  pack  of  needles  and  linen  and 
peddler's  wares  to  tempt  the  slim  purses  of  the 
Back  Country  folk.     The  two  erstwhile  comrades 
in  arms  were  overjoyed  to  encounter  each  other 
again,  and  Findlay  spent  the  winter  of  17G8-GS)  in 
Boone's  cabin.    While  the  snow  lay  deep  outside 
and  good-smelling  logs  crackled  on  the  hearth, 
they  planned  an  expedition  into  Kentucky  through 
the  Gap  where  Virginia,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky 
touch  one  another,  which  Findlay  felt  confident  he 
could  find.    Findlay  had  learned  of  this  route  from 
cross-mountain  traders  in  1758.  when  he  had  de- 
scended the  Ohio  to  the  site  of  Louisville,  whence 
he  had  gone  with  some  Shawanoes  as  a  prisoner  to 
their  town  of  Es-kip-pa-'-'  +hi-ki  or  Blue  Licks.' 


]^ 


'  Hanna.  The  WUderness  Trail,  vol. 


II,  PI).  K15-l(). 


r*  * 


98    PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

On  the  first  day  of  May.  1769,  Boone  and 
Findlay,  accompanied  by  John  Stewart  and  three 
other  venturesome  spirits,  Joseph  Holden,  Jen:  m 
Mooney,  and  Wilham  Coolcy,  took  horse  for  the 
fabled  land.  Passing  through  the  Cumberland 
Gap,  they  built  their  first  camp  in  Kentucky  on 
the  Red  Lick  fork  of  Station  Camp  Creek. 

This  camp  was  their  base  of  operations.    From 
it,    usually   in    couples,    we   infer,   the   explorers 
branched  out  to  hunt  and  to  take  their  observa- 
tions of  the  country.    Here  also  they  prepared  the 
deer  and  buffalo  meat  for  the  winter,  dried  or 
smoked  the  geese  they  shot  in  superabundance, 
made  the  tallow  and  oil  needed  to  keep  their 
weapons  in  trim,  their  leather  soft,  and  their  kits 
waterproof.    Their  first  ill  luck  befell  them  in  De- 
cember when  Boone  and  Stewart  were  captured 
by  a  band  of  Shawanoes  who  were  returning  from 
their  autumn  hunt  on  Green  River.    The  Indians 
compelled  the  two  white  men  to  show  them  the 
location  of  their  camp,  took  possession  of  all  it 
contained  in  skins  and  furs  and  also  helped  them- 
selves to  the  horses.    They  left  the  explorers  with 
just  enough  meat  and  ammunition  to  provide  for 
their  journey  homeward,  and  told  them  to  depart 
and  not  to  intrude  again  on  the  red  men's  hunting 


BOONE.  THE  WANDERER  09 

grounds.    Having  given  this  pointed  warning,  the 
Shawanoes  rode  on  northward  towards  their  towns 
beyond  the  Ohio.    On  foot,  swiftly  and  craftily. 
Boone  and  his  brother-in-law  trailed  the  band  for 
J  davs.    They  came  upon  the  camp  in  dead  of 
aight,  recaptured  their  horses,  and  fled.    But  this 
was  a  game  in  which  the  Indians  themselves  ex- 
celled, and  at  this  date  the  Shawanoes  had  an  ad- 
vantage over  Boone  in  their  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  territory;  so  that  within  forty-eight  Imurs 
the  white  men  were  once  more  prisoners.    After 
they  had  amused  themselves  by  making  Boone 
caper  about  with  a  horse  bell  on  his  neck,  while 
they  jeered  at  him  in  broken  English,  "Steal  horse, 
eh?"  the  Shawanoes   turned   north  again,  this 
time  taking  the  two  unfortunate  hunters  with  them. 
Boone  and  Stewart  escaped,  one  day  on  the  march, 
by  a  plunge  into  the  thick  tall  canebrake.    Though 
the  Indians  did  not  attempt  to  follow  them  through 
the  mazes  of  the  cane,  the  situation  of  the  two 
hunters,  without  weapons  or  food,  was  serious 
enough.    When  they  found  Station  Camp  deserted 
and  realized  that  their  four  companions  had  given 
them  up  for  dead  or  lost  and  had  set  off  on  the  trail 
for  home,  even  such  intrepid  souls  as  theirs  may 
have  felt  fear.    They  raced  on  in  pursuit  and 


■li 


( 


i 


i    » 


100  PIONEERS  OF  THE       J)  SOUTHWEST 
fortunately  fell  in  not  only  with  tlit-ir  party  but 
with  Squire  Boone,  Daniel's  brother,  and  Alexander 
Neely,  who  had  brought  in  fresh  supplies  of  rifles, 
ammunition,  flour,  and  horses. 

After  this  lucky  encounter  the  group  separated. 
Findlay  was  ill,  and  Holden,  Mooney,  and  Cooley 
had  had  their  till  of  Kentucky;  but  Squire,  Neely, 
Stewart,  and  Daniel  were  ready  for  more  adven- 
tures.   Daniel,  too,  fel*  under  the  positive  neces- 
sity of  putting  in  another  year  at  hunting  and 
trapping  in  order  to  discharge  his  debts  and  provide 
for  his  family.    Near  the  mouth  of  UeC  River  the 
new  party  built  their  station  camp.    Here,  in  idle 
hours,  Neely  read  aloud  from  a  copy  of  Gulliver's 
Travels  to  entertain  the  hunters  while  they  dressed 
their  deerskins  or  tinkered  their  weapons.     In 
honor  of  the  "  Lorbrulgrud  "  of  the  book,  though 
with  a  pronunciation  all  their  own,  they  chris- 
tened the  nearest  creek;  and  as  "  Lulbegrud  Creek  " 
it  is  still  known. 

Before  the  end  of  the  winter  the  two  Boones 
were  alone  in  the  wilderness.  Their  brother  in- 
law, Stewart,  had  disappeared;  and  Neely,  dis- 
couraged by  this  tragic  event,  had  returned  to  the 
Yadkin.  In  May,  Squire  Boone  fared  forth,  taking 
with  him  the  season's  catch  of  beaver,  otter,  and 


?  f 


ii 


BOONE.  THE  WANDERER  loi 

deerskins  to  exchange  in  the  North  Cnrohnian 
trading  houses  for  more  supplies;  and  Daniel  was 
left  soh'tary  in  Kentucky. 

Now  followed  those  lonely  explorations  which 
gave  Daniel  Boone  his  special  fame  above  all  Ken- 
tucky's pioneers.    He  was  by  no  means  the  first 
white  man  to  enter  Kentucky;  and  when  he  «lid 
enter,  it  was  as  one  of  a  party,  under  another  man's 
guidance  —  if  we  except  his  former  disappointing 
journey  into  the  laurel  thickets  of  Floyd  County. 
But  these  others,  barring  Stewart,  who  fell  fhcre. 
turned  back  when  they  met  with  los.>  and  hard- 
ship and  measured  the  certain  risks  against  the 
possible  gains.     Boone,  the  man  of  imagination, 
turned  to  wild  earth  as  to  his  kin.    His  genius  lay 
in  the  sense  of  oneness  he  felt  with  his  wilderness  en- 
vironment.    An  instinct  he  had  which  these  other 
men,  as  courageous  perhaps  as  he,  r'id  not  possess. 
Ne\  er  in  all  the  times  when  he  was  alone  in  the 
woods  and  had  no  other  man's  safety  or  counsel 
to  consider,  did  he  suffer  ill  fortune.     The  nearest 
approach  to  trouble  that  befell  him  when  alone 
occurred  one  day  during  this  summer  when  some 
Indians  emerged   from    their  green   shelter  and 
found  him,  off  guard  for  the  moment,  standing 
on  a  cliff  gazing  with  rapture  over  the  vast  rolling 


.1 1 


f  > 


v.l 


!  i 

I-      f 

'  i  I 


:   ■    i 


108  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OU)  SOUTHWEST 

stretches  of  Kentucky.  He  was  apparently  cut 
off  from  escape,  for  the  ivages  were  on  three 
sides,  advancing  with-  ,aste  to  take  him,  mean- 
while greetinK  hin.  .  ith  mock  amity.  Over  the 
cliff  leaped  Boone  and  into  the  outspread  arms 
of  a  friendly  maple,  whose  top  bloonwd  green 
about  sixty  fee.  below  the  cliff's  rim.  and  left  his 
would-be  captors  on  the  height  above,  grunting 
their  amazement. 

During  this  summer  Boone  journeyed  through 
the  valleys  of  the  Kentucky  and  the  Licking.  He 
followed  the  buffalo  traces  to  the  two  Blue  Licks 
and  saw  the  enormous  herds  licking  up  the  salt 
earth,  a  darkly  ruddy  moving  mass  of  beasts 
whose  numbers  could  not  be  counted.  For  many 
miles  he  wound  along  the  Ohio,  as  far  as  the 
Falls.  He  also  found  the  Big  Bone  Lick  with  its 
mammoth  fossils. 

Itj  July,  1770,  Daniel  returnca  to  the  Red  River 
cuinp  and  there  met  Squire  Boone  with  another 
pack  of  supplies.  The  two  brothers  continued  their 
hunting  and  exploration  together  for  some  months, 
chiefly  in  Jessamine  County,  where  two  caves  still 
bear  Boone's  name.  In  that  winter  they  even 
braved  the  Green  River  ground,  whence  had  come 
the  hunting  Shawanoes  who  had  taken  Daniel's 


I 


IWXXNE.  TIIK  WANDERKR  lOS 

first  fruita  n  yt-ur  Ivfon-.    In  llir  saiuf  your  (1770) 
there  had  conu'  into  Ktntncky  from  tho  Vudkin 
another  party  of  hunters,  callrcj.  from  tht-ir  lengthy 
sojou.n  in  the  twiligh:  zone.  IIm'  I^mg  Ifimters. 
One  of  these,  (ia.sper  Manskrr.  afterwards  related 
how  the  Long  Hunters  wen-  startled  one  day  hy 
hearing  sounds  sueh  as  r.^  huffalo  or  turkey  ever 
made,  and  how  Munsker  himself  stt>lr  silently  un- 
der cover  of  the  treea  towards  the  place  when<v 
the  strange  noises  eame,  an<l  (h-seried  Daniel  Hoone 
prone  on  his  hack  with  a  deerskin  under  him,  liis 
famous  tall  black  hat  beside  him  and  his  mouth 
opened  wide  in  joyous  but  apparently  none  too 
tuneful  song.    This  incident  gives  a  true  character 
touch.    It  is  not  recorded  of  any  of  the  njen  who 
turned  back  that  they  sang  alone  in  the  wilderness. 
In  March,  1771,  the  two  Boonts  started  home- 
ward, their  horses  bearing  the  rich  harvest  of  furs 
and  deerskins  which  was  to  clear  Daniel  of  debt 
and  to  insure  the  comfort  of  the  family  he  ha<]  not 
seen  for  two  years.     But  again  evil  fortune  met 
them,  this  time  in  the  very  gates    -  for  in  the  Cum- 
berland Gap  they  were  suddenly  surrounded  by 
Indians  who  took  everything  from  them,  leaving 
them  neither  guns  nor  horses. 


n 


^\ 


II;' f 


i 


t   I 

)    ■ 

I    ! 

i    , 


I   I 

H 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   FIGHT    FOR    KENTUCKY 

When  Boone  returned  home  he  found  the  Back 
Country  of  North  Carohna  in  the  throes  of  the 
Regulation  Movement.     This  movement,  which 
had  arisen  first  from  the  colonists'  need  to  police 
their  settlements,  had  more  recently  assumed  a 
political  character.    The  Regulators  were  now  in 
conflict  with  the  authorities,  because  the  frontier 
folk  were  suflFering  through   excessive  taxes,  ex- 
tortionate  fees,  dishonest  land  titles,  and   the 
corruption   of   the  courts.    In   May,    1771,   the 
conflict  lost  its  quasi-civil  nature.     The  Regula- 
tors resorted  to  arms  and  were  defeated  by  the 
forces  under  Governor  Tryon   in   the  Battle  of 
the  Alamance. 

The  Regulation  Movement,  which  we  shall  follow 
in  more  detail  further  on,  was  a  culmination  of 
those  causes  of  unrest  which  turned  men  westward. 
To  escape  from  oppression  and  to  acquire  land 

IM 


:'ii 


5 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  105 

beyond  the  bounds  of  tyranny  became  the  earnest 
desire  of  independent  spirits  throughout  the  Back 
Country.     But  there  was  another  and  more  potent 
reason  why  the  country  east  of  the  mountains  no 
longer  contented  Boone.     Hunting  ;» .^H  trapping 
were  Boone's  chief  means  of  livel  ijod.    in  th.-ie 
days,  deerskins  sold  for  a  dolla^   <t   skin   lo  the 
traders  at  the  Forks  or  in  HilIsbor,,.gh;  Kxv^r  at 
about  two  dollars  and  a  half,  and  otter  at  from 
three  to  five  dollars.     A  pack-horse  could  carry  a 
load  of  one  hundred  dressed  deerskins,  and,  as  cur- 
rency was  scarce,  a  hundred  dollars  was  wealth. 
Game  was  fast  disappearing  from  the  Yadkin.    To 
Boone  above  all  men,  then,  Kentucky  beckoned. 
When  he  returned  in  the  spring  of  1771  from  his 
explorations,  it  was  with  the  resolve  to  take  his 
family  at  once  into  the  great  game  country  and 
to  persuade  some  of  his  friends  to  join  in  this 
hazard  of  new  fortunes. 

The  perils  of  such  a  venture,  only  conjectural  to 
us  at  this  distance,  he  knew  well;  but  in  him  there 
was  nothing  that  shrank  from  danger,  though  he 
did  not  court  it  after  the  rash  manner  of  many  of 
his  compeers.  Neither  reckless  nor  riotous,  Boone 
was  never  found  among  those  who  opposed  vio- 
lence to  authority,  even  imjust  authority;  nor  was 


III, 

'ill 
I  '  If 

\  :     '        L 

1): 


y 
I 

=  4 


I 


n 
I}' 


,'! 


' 

I 

■     ; 

1 

i 

i 

i 

1 

i\ 

■'    'i      i. 

i    .* 

I 

106  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
he  ever  guilty  of  the  savagery  which  characterized 
much  of  the  retahatory  warfare  of  that  period  when 
frenzied  white  men  bettered  the  red  man's  instruc- 
tion.   In  him,  courage  was  illumined  with  tender- 
ness and  made  equable  by  self-control.  Yet,  though 
he  was  no  fiery  zealot  like  the  Ulstermen  who  were 
to  follow  him  along  the  path  he  had  made  and  who 
loved  and  revered  him  perhaps  because  he  was  so 
diflFerent  from  themselves,  Boone  nevertheless  had 
his  own  religion.  It  was  a  simple  faith  best  summed 
up  perhaps  by  himself  in  his  old  age  when  he  said 
that  he  had  been  only  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of 
God  to  open  the  wilderness  to  settlement. 

Two  years  passed  before  Boone  could  muster  a 
company  of  colonists  for  the  dangerous  and  de- 
lectable land.    The  dishonesty  practiced  by  Lord 
Granville's  agents  in  the  matter  of  deeds  had  made 
it  difficult  for  Daniel  and  his  friends  to  dispose  of 
their  acreage.    When  at  last  in  tht  spring  of  1773 
the  Wanderer  was  prepared  to  depart,  he  was 
again  delayed;  this  time  by  the  arrival  of  a  little 
son  to  whom  was  given  the  name  of  John.     By 
September,  however,  even  this  latest  addition  to 
the  party  was  ready  for  travel;  and  that  month 
saw  the  Boones  with  a  small  caravan  of  families 
journeying  towards  Powell's  Valley,  whence  the 


!'■:! 

f    ■  1 

1  ■  R" 

i ,  1 

'•j* 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  107 

Warrior's  Path  took  its  way  through  Cumberland 
Gap.  At  this  point  on  the  march  they  were  to 
be  joined  by  William  Rii  sell,  a  famous  pioneer, 
from  the  Clinch  River,  with  his  family  and  a 
few  neighbors,  and  by  some  of  Rebecca  Boone's 
kinsmen,  the  Bryans,  from  the  lower  Yadkin,  with 
a  company  of  forty  men. 

Of  Rebecca  Boone  history  tells  us  too  little  — 
only  that  she  was  born  a  Bryan,  was  of  low  stature 
and  dark  eyed,  that  she  bore  her  husband  ten 
children,  and  lived  beside  him  to  old  age.  Except 
on  his  hunts  and  explorations,  she  went  with  him 
from  one  cabined  home  to  another,  always  deeper 
into  the  wilds.  There  are  no  portraits  of  her.  We 
can  see  her  only  as  a  shadowy  figure  moving  along 
the  wilderness  trails  beside  the  man  who  accepted 
his  destiny  of  God  to  be  a  way-shower  for  those  of 
lesser  faith. 

He  tires  not  forever  on  his  leagr- 
Because  her  feet  are  set  to  his  L 
And  the  gleam  of  her  bare  hai 
shoulder. 


"  inarch 

"  s, 
jiants   iMToss 


Ins 


Boone  halted  Irs  company  on  Walden  Mountain 
over  Powell's  Valley  to  await  the  Bryan  contingent 
and  dispatched  two  young  men  under  the  leader- 
ship of  his  son  James,  then  in  his  seventeenth  year. 


if  f 


h 


II 


i 


5     :f 

i  i 

I    I 

'i 


108  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
to  notify  Russell  of  the  party's  arrival.     As  the 
boys  were  returning  with  Russell's  son,  also  a  strip- 
ling, two  of  his  slaves,  and  some  white  laborers, 
they  missed  the  path  and  went  into  camp  for  the 
night.    When  dawn  broke,  disclosing  the  sleepers, 
a  small  war  band  of  .^hawanoes,  who  had  been  spy- 
ing on  Boone  and  his  party,  fell  upon  them  and 
slaughtered  them.     Only  one  of  Russell's  slaves 
and  a  laborer  escaped.     The  tragedy  seems  aug- 
mented by  the  fact  that  the  point  where  the  boys 
lost  the  trail  and  made  their  night  quarters  was 
hardly  three  miles  from  the  main  camp  —  to  which 
an  hour  later  came  the  two  survivors  with  their 
gloomy  tidingB.    Terror  now  took  hold  of  the  little 
band  of  emigrants,  and  there  were  loud  outcries 
for  turning  back.    The  Bryans,  who  had  arrived 
meanwhile,  also  advised  retreat,  saying  that  the 
"signs"  about  the  scene  of  blood  indicated  an 
Indian  uprising.    Daniel  carried  the  scalped  body 
of  his  son,  the  '  -^  -comrade  of  his  happy  hunts, 
to  the  camp  and  buried  it  there  at  the  beginning 
of  the  trail.    His  voice  alone  urged  that  they  go  on. 
Fortunately  indeed,  as  events  turned  out,  Boone 
was  overruled,  and  the  expedition  was  abandoned. 
The  Bryan  party  and  the  others  from  North  Caro- 
lina went  back  to  the  Yadkin.    Boor.c  himself  with 


i'H 


\:    I 


1 1 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  109 

his  family  accompanied  Russell  to  the  Clinch  set- 
tlement, where  he  erected  a  temporary  ea'oin  on 
the  farm  of  one  of  the  settlers,  and  then  set  out 
alone  on  the  chase  to  earn  provision  for  liis  wife  and 
children  through  the  winter. 

Those  who  prophesied  an  Indian  war  were  not 
mistaken.    When  the  snowy  hunting  season  had 
passed  and  the  "Powwowing  Days"  were  come, 
the  Indian  war  drum  rattled  in  the  medicine  house 
from  the  borders  of  Pennsylvania  to  those  of  Caro- 
lina.   The  causes  of  the  strife  for  which  the  rod 
men  were  making  ready  must  be  briefly  noted  to 
help  us  form  a  just  opinion  of  the  deeds  that  fol- 
lowed.   Early  writers  have  usually  represented  the 
frontiersmen  as  saints  in  buckskin  and  the  Indians 
as  fiends  without  the  shadow  of  a  claim  on  either 
the  land  or  humanity.    Many  later  writers  have 
merely  reversed  the  shield.    The  truth  is  that  the 
Indians  and  the  borderers  reacted  upon  each  other 
to  the  hurt  of  both.    Paradoxically  they  grew  like 
enough  to  hate  one  another  with  a  savage  hatred 
—  and  both  wanted  the  land. 

Land!  Land!  was  the  slogan  of  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men.  Tidewater  officials  held  solemn 
powwows  with  the  chiefs,  gave  wampum  strings. 


t 


I" 


li 


r;  4 


't   I 


no  PIOxXEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

and  forthwith  incorporated.'    Chiefs  blessed  their 
white  brothers  who  had  "forever  brightened  the 
chain  of  friendship,"  departed  home,  and  pro- 
ceeded  to  brighten  the  blades  of  their  tomahawks 
and  to  await,  not  long,  the  opportunity  to  use  them 
on  casual  hunters  who  carried  in  their  kits  the  com- 
pass, the  "land-stealer."    Usually  the  surveying 
hunter  was  a  borderer;  and  on  him  the  tomahawk 
descended   with    an    accelerated   gusto.    Private 
citizens  also  formed  land  companies  and  sent  out 
surveyors,  regardless  of  treaties.    Bold  frontiers- 
men  went  into  No  Man's  Land  and  staked  out 
their  claims.  In  the  very  year  when  disaster  turned 
the  Boone  party  back,  James  Harrod  had  entered 
Kentucky  from  Pennsylvania  and  had  marked  the 
site  of  a  settlement. 

Ten  years  earlier  (1763),  the  King  had  issued  the 
famous  and  much  misunderstood  Proclamation 
restricting  his  "loving  subjects"  from  the  lands 
west  of  the  mountains.  The  colonists  interpreted 
this  document  as  a  tyrannous  curtailment  of  their 
liberties  for  the  benefit  of  the  fur  trade.  We  know 
now  that  the  portion  of  this  Proclamation  relat- 
ing to  western  settlement  was  a  wise  provision 

'The  activities  of  the  great   land   companies   are   described  k. 
Alvords  exhaustive  work.  The  Misns^pjn  VaUey  in  British  Polities. 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  m 

designed  to  protect  the  settlers  on  the  frontier  by 
allaying  the  suspicions  of  the  Indians,  who  viewed 
with  apprehension  the  triumphal  occui)ation  of 
that  vast  territory  from  Canada  to  the  (;ulf  of 
Mexico  by  the  colonizing  English.    By  staking  to 
compel  all  land  punhase  to  be  made  through  the 
Crown,  it  was  designed  likewise  to  protect  the 
Indians  from  "whisky  purchase,"  and  to  make 
impossible  the  transfer  of  their  lands  except  with 
consent  of  the  Indian  Council,  or  full  quota  of 
headmen,  whose  joint  action  alone  conveyed  what 
the  tribes  considered  to  be  legal  title.    Sales  made 
according  to  this  form,  Sir  William  Johnson  de- 
clared to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  he  had  never  known 
to  be  repudiated  by  the  Indians.    This  paragraph 
of  the  Proclamation  was  in  substance  an  embodi- 
ment of  Johnson's  suggestions  to  the  Lords  of 
Trade.    Its  purpose  was  square  dealing  and  paci- 
fication; and   shrewd   men  such   as  Washington 
recognized  that  it  was  not  intended  as  a  final  check 
to  expansion.   "A  temporary  expedient  to  quiet  the 
minds  of  the  Indians, "  Washington  called  it,  and 
then  himself  went  out  along  the  Great  Kanawha 
and  into  Kentucky,  surveying  land. 

It  will  be  asked  what  had  become  of  the  Ohio 
Company  of  Virginia  and  that  fort  at  the  Forks  of 


I? 

i 


H 


^,1 


1    .<!j 


i) 


'^ 


I   ', 


112   PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  Ohio,  once  a  bone  of  contention  between  France 
and  England.    Fort  Pitt,  as  it  was  now  called,  had 
fallen  foul  of  another  dispute,  this  time  between 
Virginia  and  Pennsylvania.    Virginia  claimed  that 
the  far  western  corner  of  her  boundary  ascended 
just  far  enough  north  to  take  in  Fort  Pitt.    Penn- 
sylvania asserted  that  it  did  nothing  of  the  sort. 
The  Ohio  Company  had  meanwhile  been  merged 
into  the  Walpole  Company.     George  Croghan,  at 
Fort  Pitt,  was  the  Company's  agent  and  as  such 
was  accused  by  Pennsylvania  of  favoring  from 
ulterior  motives  the   claims   of  Virginia.      Hot- 
heads in  both  colonies  asseverated  that  the  In- 
dians wero  secretly  being  stirred  up  in  connection 
with  the  boundary  disputes.    If  it  does  not  very 
clearly  appear  how  an  Indian  rising  would  have 
settled  the  ownership  of  Fort  Pitt,  it  is  evident 
enough  where  the  interests  of  Virginia  and  Penn- 
sylvania clashed.    Virginia  wanted  land  for  settle- 
ment and  speculation;  Pennsylvania  wanted  the 
Indians  left  in  possession  for  the  benefit  of  the 
fur  trade.    So  far  from  stirring  up  the  Indians,  as 
his  enemies  declared,  Croghan  was  as  usual  giving 
away  ji  II  h is  substance  to  keep  them  quiet. '   Indeed, 

•  The  suspicion  that  Croghan  and  Lord  Dunmore,  the  Governor  of 
\irginia,  were  instigating  the  war  appears  to  have  arisen  out  of  the 


^il 


THK  Fir.IIT  FOR  KENTUCKY  ll.'l 

during  this  suintntr  of  1774,  eleven  hundretl  Indians 
were  encamped  about  Fort  Titt  visiting  him. 

Two  hundred  thousand  acres  in  the  West  — 
Kentucky  and  West  Virginia  —  had  been  promised 
to  the  rolonial  officers  and  sohliers  who  fought 
in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  But  after  making  the 
Proclamation  the  British  Government  had  delayed 
issuing  the  patents.  Washmgton  -nterested  him- 
self in  trying  to  secure  them;  and  >pd  Dunmore, 
who  also  had  caught  the  "land-fi  .r,"'  prodded 
the  British  authorities  but  won  only  rebuke  for 
his  inconvenient  activities.  Insistent,  however, 
Dunmore  sent  o  "irties  of  surveyors  to  fix  the 
bounds  of  the  soldiers'  claims.  James  Harrod,  Cap- 
tain Thomas  Bullitt,  Hancock  Taylor,  and  three 
McAfee  brothers  entered  Kentucky,  by  the  Ohio, 
under  Dunmore's  orders.    John  Floyd  wen^  in  by 

conduct  of  Dr.  John  Connolly.  Dunmore's  ajjent  and  (Voj^han's 
nephew.  Croghan  had  induced  the  Shawanoes  to  bring  uniU-r  escort 
to  Fort  Pitt  certain  English  traders  resident  in  the  Indian  towns.  The 
escort  was  fired  on  by  militiamen  under  command  of  (  onnolly,  who 
also  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  a  state  of  war  to  exist .  ( 'onnolly, 
however,  probably  acted  on  his  own  initiati\(  He  was  interested 
in  land  on  his  own  behalf  and  was  by  no  means  tin-  only  man  at  that 
time  who  was  ready  to  commit  outrages  on  Indians  in  order  to  obtain 
it.  As  Croghan  lamented,  there  was  "  too  great  a  spirit  '^  the  frontier 
people  for  killing  Indians." 

'  See  Alvcrd,  The  Munstippi  Vdley  in  Brituh  Politics,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
191-94. 


^'1 


il 


s 


■    i 


-■'  - 


114  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOITHWEST 
the  Kanawha  as  Washington's  agent.  A  bird's-eye 
view  of  that  perio<J  would  disclose  to  us  very  few 
indeed  of  His  Majesty's  loving  subjects  who  were 
paying  any  attention  to  his  proclamation.  Early 
in  1774.  Harrod  began  the  building  of  cabins  and  a 
fort,  and  planted  com  on  the  site  of  Harrodsburg. 
Thus  to  him  and  not  to  Boone  fell  the  honor  of 
founding  the  first  permanent  white  settlement 
in  Kentucky 

When  summer  came,  its  thick  verdure  proffering 
ambuscade,  the  air  hung  tense  along  the  border. 
Traders  had  sent  in  word  that  Shawanoes,  Dela- 
..-.•es,  Mingos,  Wyandots,  and   Cherokees  were 
refusing  all  other  exchange  than  rifles,  ammuni- 
tion, knives,  and  hatchets.    White  men  were  shot 
down  in  their  field.    .Vom  ambush.     Dead   In- 
dians lay  among  their  own  young  corn,  their  scalp 
locks  taken.    There  were  men  of  both  races  who 
wanted  war  and  meant  to  have  it  —  and  with  it 
the  land. 

Lord  Dunmore,  the  Governor,  resolved  that,  if 
war  were  inevitable,  it  should  be  fought  out  in 
the  Indian  country.  With  this  intent,  he  wrote  to 
Colonel  Andrew  Lewis  of  Botetourt  County,  Com- 
mander of  the  Southwest  Militia,  instructing  him 


I)   t 


I 


i 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  iii 

to  raise  a  respectable  botly  of  troops  and  •join  m 
either  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha  or 
Wheeling,  or  such  other  part  of  the  Ohio  as  may 
be  most  convenient  for  ycu  to  meet  me."  The 
Governor  himself  with  a  force  of  twelve  hundred 
proceeded  to  Fort  Pitt,  where  Croghan.  as  we 
have  seen,  was  extending  his  hospita'«ty  to  eleven 
himdred  warriors  from  the  disaffected  tribes. 

On  rweipt  of  the  Governor's  letter,  Andrew 
Lewis  sent  out  expresses  to  his  brother  Colonel 
Charles   Lewis,   County  Lieutenant  of  Augusta, 
and  to  Colonel  William  Preston,  County  Lieuten- 
ant of  Fincastle,  lo  raise  men  and  bring  them  with 
all  speed  to  the  rendezvous  at  Camp  Union  (Lewis- 
burg)  on  the  Big  Levels  of  the  Greenbrier  (West 
Virginia).     Andrew  Lewis  summoned  these  offi- 
cers to  an  expedition  for  "reducing  our  inveterate 
enemies  to  reason."    Preston  called  for  volunteers 
to  take  advantage  of  "the  opportunity  we  have  so 
long  wished  for  .  .  .  this  useless  People  may  now 
at  last  be  Oblidged  to  abandon  their  country." 
These  men  were  among  not  only  the  bravest  but 
the  best  of  their  time;  but  this  was  their  view  of 
the  Indian  and  his  alleged  rights.    To  eliminate 
this  "useless  people,"  inveterate  enemies  of  the 
white  race,  was,  as  they  saw  it,  a  political  necessity 


I 


it. 


1 


\r 


m1 

J 


H 


it 


u 

f 


116  I'lONEERS  OK  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
and  tt  religious  <luty.    And  wv  toduy  who  profit  by 
their  deeds  dare  not  condemn  them. 

Fervor  less  solemn  was  aroused  in  other  quar- 
ters by  Dunmore's  call  to  arms.    At  VVheehng.  some 
eighty  or  ninety  young  adventurers,  in  charge  of 
Captain  Michael  Cresap  of  Maryland,  were  wait- 
ing for  the  freshets  to  sweep  them  down  the  Ohio 
into  Kentucky .    When  the  news  reached  them,  they 
greeted  it  with  the  wild  monotone  chant  and  the 
ceremonies  preliminary  to  Indian  warfare.     Thev 
planted  the  war  pole,  strippnl  and  painted  them- 
selves,   and    .startinj?    thi-    war   dunce   called   on 
Cresap  to  be  their  "white  l.^der."    The  captain, 
however,  declined;  but  in  that  wild  circling  line 
was  one  who  was  a  white  leader  indtn-d.    He  was  a 
sandy-haired  boy  of  twenty  —  one  of  the  bold  race 
of  English  Virginians,  rugged  and  of  fiery  counte- 
nance, with  blue  eyes  intense  of  glance  and  deep 
set  under  a  high  brow  that,  while  modeled  for 
power,  seemed  threatened  in  its  promise  by  the  too 
sensitive  chiseling  of  his  lips.     With  every  nerve 
straining  for  the  fray,  with  thudding  of  feet  and 
crooning  of  the  blood  song,  he  wheeled  with  those 
other  mad  spirits  round  the  war  pole  till  the  set 
of  sun  closed  the  rites.    "That  evening  two  scalps 
were  brought  into  camp, "  so  a  letter  of  his  reads. 


^•1 


I 


THE  FIGHT  l'X)R  KENTUCKY  117 

Does  Ihr  bold  suvu^c  color  of  thi.s  picture  affright 
us?  Would  wc  veil  it?  Then  wc  should  lose  some- 
thing of  the  true  lineaments  of  (ieorge  Rogers 
Clurk.  who,  within  four  short  years,  was  to  lead 
a  tiny  army  of  tattered  an<l  starving  backwoods- 
men, ashamed  to  quail  where  he  never  flinched, 
through  barrens  and  icy  floods  to  the  con(|uest  of 
Illinois  for  the  United  States. 

Though  Cresap  had  rcjectcti  the  role  of  "white 
leader,"  he  did  not  esca  »e  the  touch  of  infamy. 
"Cresap's  War"  was  the  name  the  Indians  gave 
to  the  bloody  encounters  bclweeu  sina'  parties  of 
whites  and  Indians,  which  followed  on  that  war 
dance  and  scalping,  during  the  sunmier  months. 
One  of  these  encounters  must  be  detailed  here 
because  history  has  ussignetl  it  as  the  immediate 
cause  of  Dunmore's  War. 

(Ireathouse,  Sapperton,  and  King,  three  traders 
who  had  a  post  on  Yellow  Creek,  a  tributary  of  the 
Ohio  fifty  miles  below  Pittsburgh,  invited  several 
Indians  from  across  the  stream  to  com<"  and  drink 
with  them  and  their  friends.  Among  the  Indians 
were  two  or  three  men  of  importance  in  the  Mingo 
tribe.  There  were  also  .some  women,  one  of  whom 
was  the  Indian  wife  of  Colonel  John  Gibson,  an 
educated  man  who  had  distinguished  himself  as 


iij 

i 


I 


hi 


.1    ? 


'V> 


118  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
a  soldier  with  Forbes  in  1758.     That  the  Indians 
came  in  amity  and  apprehended  no  treachery  was 
proved  by  the  presence  of  the  women.    Gibson's 
wife  carried  her  half-caste  baby  in  her  shawl.    The 
disreputable  traders  plied  their  guests  with  drink 
to  the  point  of  intoxication  and  then  murdered 
them.    King  shot  the  first  man  and,  when  he  fell, 
cut  his  throat,  saying  that  he  had  served  many 
a  deer  ia  that  fashion.    Gibson's  Indian  wife  fled 
and  was  shot  down  in  the  clearing.    A  man  fol- 
lowed to  dispatch  her  and  her  baby.    She  held  the 
child  up  to  him  pleading,  with  her  last  breath, 
that  he  would  spare  it  because  it  was  not  Indian 
but  "one  of  yours."    The  mother  dead,  the  child 
was  later  sent  to  Gibson.    Twelve  Indians  in  all 
were  killed. 

Meanwhile  Croghan  had  persuaded  the  Iroquois 
to  peace.  With  the  help  of  David  Zeisberger,  the 
Moravian  missionary,  and  White  Eyes,  a  Delaware 
chief,  he  and  Dunmore  had  won  over  the  Delaware 
warriors.  In  the  Cherokee  councils,  Oconostota 
demanded  that  the  treaty  of  peace  signed  in  1761 
be  kept.  The  Shawanoes,  however,  led  by  Corn- 
stalk, were  implacable;  and  they  had  as  allies  the 
Ottawas  and  Mingos,  who  had  entered  the  council 
with  them. 


I*j 


f 

1 

t 

3 


4. 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  119 

A  famous  chief  of  the  day  and  one  of  great  in- 
fluence over  the  Indians,  and  also  among  the  white 
officials  who  dealt  with  Indian  affairs,  was  Tach- 
nech-dor-us,  or  Branching  Oak  of  the  Forest,  a 
Mingo  who  had  taken  the  name  of  Logan  out 
of  compliment  to  James  Logan  of  Pennsylvania. 
Chief  Logan  had  recently  met  with     j  much  re- 
proach from  his  red  brothers  for  his  loyalty  to  the 
whites  that  he  had  departed  from  the  Mingo  town 
at  Yellow  Creek.    But,  learning  that  his  tribe  had 
determined  to  assist  the  Shawanoes  and  had  al- 
ready taken  some  white  scalps,  he  repaired  to  the 
place  where  the  Mingos  were  holding  their  war 
council  to  exert  his  powers  for  peace.    There,  in 
presence  of  the  warriors,  after  swaying  them  from 
their  purpose  by  those  oratorical  gifts  which  gave 
him  his  influence  and  his  renown,  he  took  the 
war  hatchet  that  had  already  killed,  and  buried  it 
in  proof  that  vengeance  was  appeased.    Upon  this 
scene  there  entered  a  Mingo  from  Yellow  Creek 
with  the  news  of  the  murders  committed  there  by 
the  three  traders.    The  Indian  whose  throat  had 
been  slit  as  King  had  served  deer  was  Logan's 
brother.     Another  man  slain   was  his  kinsman. 
The  woman  with  the  baby  was  his  sister.    Logan 
tore  up  from  the  earth  the  bloody  tomahawk  and. 


n 


i 


If 


f- 1 


it 

M 


w 


120  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
raising  it  above  his  head,  swore  that  he  would  not 
rest  till  he  had  taken  ten  white  lives  to  pay  for  each 
one  of  his  kin.  Again  the  Mingo  warriors  declared 
for  war  and  this  time  were  not  dissuaded.  But 
Logan  did  not  join  this  red  army.  He  went  out 
alone  to  wreak  his  vengeance,  slaying  and  scalping. 

Meanwhile  Dunmoro  prepared  to  push  the  war 
with  the  utmost  vigor.  His  first  concern  was  to 
recall  the  surveying  parties  from  Kentucky,  and 
for  so  hazardous  an  errand  he  needed  the  services 
of  a  man  whose  endurance,  speed,  and  woodcraft 
were  equal  to  those  of  any  Indian  scout  afoot. 
Through  Colonel  Preston,  his  orders  were  conveyed 
to  Daniel  Boone,  for  Boone's  fame  had  now  spread 
from  the  border  to  the  tidewater  regions.  It  was 
stated  that  "Boone  would  lose  no  time,"  and  "if 
they  are  alive,  it  is  indisputable  but  Boone  must 
find  them. " 

So  Boone  set  out  in  company  with  Michael 
Stoner,  another  expert  woodsman.  His  general 
instructions  were  to  go  down  the  Kentucky  River 
to  Preston's  Salt  Lick  and  across  country  to  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio,  and  thence  home  by  Caspar's 
Lick  on  the  Cumberland  River.  Indian  war  par- 
ties were  moving  under  cover  across  "the  Dark 


!!     .'  t 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  Ul 

and  Bloody  Ground"  to  surround  the  various 
groups  of  surveyors  still  at  large  and  to  exterminate 
them.  Boone  made  his  journey  successfully.  He 
found  John  Floyd,  who  was  surveying  for  Wash- 
ington; he  sped  up  to  where  Harrod  and  his  band 
were  building  cabins  and  sent  them  out,  just  in 
time  as  it  happened;  he  reached  all  the  outposts  of 
Thomas  Bullitt's  party,  only  one  of  whom  fell  a 
victim  to  the  foe';  and,  undetected  by  the  Indians, 
he  brought  himself  and  Stoner  home  in  safety,  after 
covering  eight  hundred  miles  in  sixty-one  days. 

Harrod  and  his  homesteaders  immediately  en- 
listed in  the  army.  How  eager  Boone  was  to  go 
with  the  forces  under  Lewis  is  seen  in  the  o£BciaI 
correspondence  relative  to  Dunmore's  War.  Floyd 
wanted  Boone's  help  in  raising  a  company:  "Cap- 
tain Bledsoe  says  that  Boone  has  more  [influence] 
than  any  man  now  disengaged;  and  you  know 
what  Boone  has  done  for  me  .  .  .  for  which  reason 
I  love  the  man."  Even  the  border,  it  would  seem, 
had  its  species  of  pacifists  who  were  willing  to  let 
others  take  risks  for  them,  for  men  hung  back  from 
recruiting,  and  desertions  were  the  order  of  the 
day.    Major  Arthur  Campbell  hit  upon  a  solution 

'  Hancock  Taylor,  who  delayed  in  gettinK  out  of  the  country  and 
was  cut  off. 


% 

k 


r 


4 


I 


i 


1  fii 


M 


Pi 


V^i 


i 


1.  n 


122  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
of  the  difficulties  in  West  Fincastle.    He  was  con- 
vinced that  Boone  could  raise  a  company  and  hold 
the  men  loyal.     And  Boone  did. 

For  some  reason,  however,  Daniel's  desire  to 
march  with  the  army  was  denied.  Perhaps  it  was 
because  just  such  a  man  as  he  —  and,  indeed, 
there  was  no  other  —  was  needed  to  guard  the  set- 
tlement. Presently  he  was  put  in  command  of 
Moore's  Fort  in  Clinch  Valley,  and  his  "diligence" 
received  official  approbation.  A  little  later  the 
inhabitants  of  the  valley  sent  out  a  petition  to 
have  Boone  made  a  "captain"  and  given  supreme 
command  of  the  lower  forts.  The  settlers  de- 
manded Boone's  promotion  for  their  own  security. 

The  lar  J  it  is  good,  it  is  just  to  our  mind. 
Each  will  have  his  part  if  his  Lordship  be  kind. 
The  Ohio  once  ours,  we'll  live  at  our  ease. 
With  a  bottle  and  glass  to  drink«when  wc  please. 

So  sang  the  army  poet,  thus  giving  voice,  as  bards 
should  ever  do,  to  the  theme  nearest  the  hearts  of 
his  hearers  —  m  this  case.  Land!  Presumably  his 
ditty  was  composed  on  the  eve  of  the  march  from 
Le    .sburg,  for  it  is  found  in  a  soldier's  diary. 

On  the  evening  of  October  9, 1774,  Andrew  Lewis 
with  his  force  of  eleven  hundred  frontiersmen 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY 


Hii 


was  encamped  on  Point  Pleasant  at  the  junction 
of  the  Great  Kanawha  with  the  Ohio.  Dunmore 
in  the  meantime  had  led  his  forces  into  Ohio 
and  had  erected  Fort  Gower  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Hockhocking  River,  where  he  waited  for  word 
from  Andrew  Lewis. ' 

The  movements  of  the  two  armies  were  being 
observed  by  scouts  from  the  force  of  red  warriors 
gathered  in  Ohio  under  the  great  leader  of  the 
Shawanoes.  Cornstalk  purposed  to  isolate  the 
two  armies  of  his  enemy  and  to  crush  them  in 
turn  before  they  could  come  together.  His  first 
move  was  to  launch  an  attack  on  Lewis  at  Point 

'  It  has  been  customary  to  ascribe  to  Lord  Dunmore  motives  of 
treachery  in  failing  to  make  connections  «ith  Lewis;  but  no  real 
evidence  has  been  advanced  to  support  any  of  the  charges  made 
against  him  by  local  historians.  The  charges  were,  as  Theodore 
Roosevelt  says,  "an  afterthought."  Dunmore  was  a  King's  man  iu 
the  Revolution;  and  yet  in  March,  1775,  the  C "onvention  of  the  (  olony 
of  Virginia,  assembled  in  opposition  to  the  royal  party,  resolved. 
"The  most  cordial  thanks  of  the  people  of  this  colony  arc  a  tribute 
justly  due  to  our  worthy  Governor,  Lord  Duuinore.  for  his  truly  noble, 
wise,  and  spirited  conduct  which  at  once  evinces  his  Excellency  s 
attention  to  the  true  interests  of  this  colony,  and  a  zeal  in  the  execu- 
tive department  which  no  dangers  can  divert,  or  difficulties  hinder, 
from  achir  ''le  most  important  services  to  the  people  who  have 
the  happ  ^      ^    under  his  administration."    (See  American  Ar- 

chitet.  Fourth  Seti^ji,  vol.  n,  p.  170.)  Similar  resolutions  were  passed 
by  his  officers  on  the  march  home  from  Ohio;  at  the  same  time,  the 
officers  passed  resolutions  in  sympathy  with  the  American  cause. 
Yet  it  was  Andrew  Lewis  who  later  drove  Dunmore  from  Virginia. 
Well  might  Dunmore  exclaim,  "That  it  should  ever  come  to  this! " 


\^n 


..'>' 


' 


/  ■ 


»•■ 


V! 


(ii 


124  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
Pleasant.  In  the  dark  of  night,  Cornstalk's  Indians 
crossed  the  Ohio  on  rafts,  intending  to  surprise  the 
white  man's  camp  at  dawn.     They  would  have 
succeeded  but  for  the  chance  that  three  or  four  of 
the  frontiersmen,  who  had  risen  before  daybreak  to 
hunt,  came  upon  the  Indians  creeping  towards  the 
camp.    Shots  were  exchanged.    An  Indian  and  a 
white  man  dropped.    The  firing  roused  the  camp. 
Three  hundred  men  in  two  lines  under  Charles 
Lewis  and  William  Fleming  sallied  forth  expect- 
ing to  engage  the  vanguard  of  the  enemy  but  en- 
countered almost  the  ifihole  force  of  from  eight 
hundred  to  a  thousand  Indians  before  the  rest  of 
the  army  could  come  into  action.    Both  officers 
were  wounded,  Charles  Lewis  fatally.    The  battle, 
which  continued  from  dawn  until  an  hour  be- 
fore sunset,  was  the  bloodiest  in  Virginia's  long  se- 
ries of  Indian  wars.     The  frontiersmen  fought  as 
such  men  ever  fought  —  with  the  daring,  bravery, 
swiftness  of  attack,  and  skill  in  taking  cover  which 
were  the  tactics  of  their  day,  even  as  at  a  later  time 
many  of  these  same  men  fought  at  King's  Moun- 
tain and  in  Illinois  the  battles  that  did  so  much 
to  turn  the  tide  in  the  Revolution. ' 

"  With  Andrew  Lewis  on  this  day  were  Isaac  Shelby  and  Wil- 
iiam  Campbell,  the  victorious  leaders  at  King's  Mountain,  James 


if   f 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  125 

Colonel  Preston  wrote  to  Patrick  Henry  that  the 
enemy  behaved  with  "inconceivable  bravery,"  the 
head  men  walking  about  in  the  time  of  action 
exhorting  their  men  to  "lie  close,  shoot  well,  be 
strong,  and  fight."  The  Shawanoes  ran  up  to  the 
muzzles  of  the  English  guns,  disputing  every  foot 
of  ground.  Both  sides  knew  well  what  th<'y  were 
fighting  for  —  the  rich  land  held  in  a  semicircle 
by  the  Beautiful  River. 

Shortly  before  sundown  the  Indians,  mistaking 
a  flank  movement  by  Shelby's  contingent  for  the 
arrival  of  reinforcements,  retreated  across  the  Ohio. 
Many  of  their  most  noted  warriors  had  fallen  and 
among  them  the  Shawano  chief,  Puck-e-shin-wa, 
father  of  a  famous  son,  Tecumseh. '  Yet  they  were 
unwilling  to  accept  defeat.  When  they  heard  that 
Dunmore  was  now  marching  overland  to  cut  them 
off  from  their  towns,  their  fury  blazed  anew.  "Shall 
we  first  kill  all  our  women  and  children  and  then 


Robertson,  the  "father  of  Tennessee,"  Valentine  Sevier,  Daniel  Mor- 
gan, hero  of  the  Cow]>ens,  Major  Arthur  Campbell,  Benjamin  Logan. 
Anthony  Bledsoe,  and  Simon  Kenton.  With  Dunmore's  force  were 
Adam  Stephen,  who  distinguished  himself  at  the  Brandywine,  George 
Rogers  Clark,  John  Stuart,  already  noted  through  the  Cherokee  wars, 
and  John  Montgomery,  later  one  of  Clark's  four  captains  in  Illii  is. 
The  two  last  mentioned  were  Highlanders.  Clark'.^  Illinois  force  was 
largely  recruited  from  the  troops  who  fought  at  Point  Pleasant. 
'  Thwaites,  Documentary  History  of  Dunmore  a  War. 


•*< 


fli 


^ 


HI 

i  'I 


I  n 


III 


^Ji 


m  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUIUWEST 

fight  till  we  ourselves  are  slain?"  Cornstalk,  ii 
irony,  demanded  of  them;  "No?  Then  I  will  go 
and  make  peace." 

By  the  treaty  compacted  between  the  chiefs  and 
Lord  Dunmore.  the  Indians  gave  up  all  claim  to  the 
lands  south  of  the  Ohio,  even  for  hunting,  and 
agreed  to  allow  boats  to  pass  unmolested.    In  this 
treaty  the  Mingos  refused  to  join,  and  a  detach- 
ment of  Dunmore's  troops  made  a  punitive  expedi- 
tion  to  their  towns.    Some  discord  arose  between 
Dunmore  and   Lewis's   frontier   forces   because, 
smce  the  Shawanoes  had  made  peace,  the  Gover- 
nor would  not  allow  the  frontiersmen  to  destroy 
the  Shawano  towns. 

Of  all  the  chiefs,  Logan  alone  still  held  aloof. 
Major  Gibson  undertook  to  fetch  him,  but  Logan 
refused  to  come  to  the  treaty  grounds.  He  sent 
by  Gibson  the  short  speech  which  has  lived  as  an 
example  of  the  best  Indian  oratory: 

I  appeal  to  any  white  man  to  say  if  ever  he  entered 
Logan  s  cabin  hungry  and  he  gave  him  not  meat-  if 
ever  he  came  cold  and  naked  and  he  clothed  him  not 
During  the  course  of  the  last  long  and  bloody  war,' 
Lo^n  remamed  idle  in  his  cabin,  an  advocate  for  peace 
Such  was  my  love  for  the  whites  that  my  countrymen 
pointed  as  they  passed  and  said,  "Logan  is  the  friend 
of  the  white  men."    I  had  even  thought  to  have  Hved 


(     >¥ 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  KENTUCKY  liJ 

with  you  but  for  the  injuries  of  one  man.  Colonel 
Cresap,  the  last  spring,  in  cold  blood  and  unprovoked, 
murdered  all  the  relations  of  Logan,  not  even  sparing 
my  women  and  children.  There  remains  not  a  drop  of 
my  blood  in  the  veins  of  any  living  creature.  This 
called  on  me  for  revenge.  I  have  sought  it;  I  have 
killed  many;  I  have  fully  glutted  my  vengeance:  for  my 
country  I  rejoice  at  the  beams  of  peace.  But  do  not 
harbor  a  thought  that  mine  is  the  joy  of  fear.  Logan 
never  felt  fear.  He  will  not  turu  oii  his  heel  to  save  his 
life.    Who  is  there  to  mourn  for  Logan.*    Not  one. ' 


/    , 


By  rivers  and  trails,  in  large  and  small  companies, 
stiirted  home  the  array  that  had  won  the  land. 
The  West  Fincastle  troops,  from  the  lower  settle- 
ments of  the  Clinch  and  Holston  valleys,  were  to 
return  by  the  Kentucky  River,  while  those  from 


'  Some  writers  have  questioned  the  uuthenticity  ot"  Logan's  s(>et-(h, 
inclining  to  think  that  Gibson  hira>^<^f  corniKiseil  it,  partly  because  of 
the  biblical  suggestion  in  the  first  few  lines.  That  Gibson  gave  biblical 
phraseology  to  these  lines  is  apparent,  though,  as  Adair  points  out 
there  are  many  examples  of  similitude  in  loHian  and  biblical  expres- 
sion. But  the  thought  is  Indian  and  relates  to  the  first  article  of  the 
Indian's  creed,  namely,  to  share  his  food  with  the  needy.  "There 
remains  not  a  drop  of  niy  blood  in  the  veins  of  any  living  creature" 
is  a  truly  Indian  lament.  Evidently  the  final  four  lines  of  the  speech 
are  the  most  literally  translated,  for  they  have  the  form  and  the  primi- 
tive rhythmic  beat  which  a  student  of  Indian  poetry  quickly  recog- 
nizes. The  authenticity  of  the  speech,  as  well  as  the  innocence  of 
Cresap,  whom  Logan  mistakenly  accused,  was  vouched  for  by  George 
Rogers  Clark  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Samuel  Brown  dated  June  17,  17J8. 
See  Jefferson  papers.  Series  5.  quoted  by  English,  Conquert  of  the 
Country  Sorthwest  of  the  River  Ohio,  vol.  II,  p.  1049. 


'     l 


ill 


1«8  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
the  upper  valley  would  take  the  shorter  way  up 
Sandy  Creek.  To  keep  them  in  provisions  during 
th^  journey  it  was  ordered  that  hunters  be  sent  out 
along  these  routes  to  kill  and  barbecue  meat  and 
place  it  on  scaffolds  at  appropriate  spots. 

The  way  home  by  the  Kentucky  was  a  long  road 
for  weary  and  wounded  men  with  hunger  gnawing 
under  their  belts.  We  know  who  swung  o  -.t  along 
the  trail  to  provide  for  that  little  band,  "dressed 
in  deerskins  colored  black,  and  his  hair  plaited 
and  bobbed  up."  It  was  Daniel  Boone  —  now, 
by  popular  demand.  Captain  Boone  — just  "dis- 
charged from  Service,"  since  the  valley  forts 
needed  him  no  longer.  Once  more  only  a  hunter, 
he  went  his  way  over  Walden  Mountain  —  past  his 
son's  grave  marking  the  place  where  he  had  been 
turned  back  —  to  serve  the  men  who  had  opened 
the  gates. 


i 

'    ft* 


CHAPTER  VII 

THK  DAHK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND 

With  the  coming  of  spring  Daniel  Boone's  desire, 
so  long  cherished  and  deferred,  to  make  a  way  for 
his  neighbors  through  the  wilderness  was  to  be 
fulfilled  at  last.  But  ere  his  ax  could  slash  the 
thickets  from  the  homeseekers'  path,  more  than 
two  hundred  settlers  had  entered  Kentucky  by 
the  northern  waterways.  Eighty  or  more  of  these 
settled  at  Harrodsburg,  where  Harrod  was  laying 
out  his  town  on  a  generous  plan,  with  "in-lots" 
of  half  an  acre  and  "out-lots"  of  larger  size. 
Among  those  associated  with  Harrod  was  George 
Rogers  Clark,  who  had  surveyed  claims  for  himself 
iuring  the  year  before  the  war. 

While  over  two  hundred  colonists  were  picking 
out  home  sites  wherever  their  pleasure  or  prudence 
dictated,  a  gigantic  land  promotion  scheme  —  in- 
volving the  very  tracts  where  they  were  sowing 
their  first  corn  —  was  being  set  afoot  in  North 

o  li9 


i 

i 


A 


i    \i 

*  t 


180  i'lOXEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Curolinu  by  a  body  of  men  -  ho  figure  in  the  early 
history  of  Kentucky  a.t  thi  Transylvania  Com- 
pany. The  leader  of  this  oi-^'  nization  was  Judge 
Richard  Henderson.'  Jud;  i  Ifenderson  dreamed 
a  big  dream.  His  castle  in  tl .  air  had  imperial 
proportions.  He  resolve*'  lu  mrt,  to  purchase 
from  the  Cherokee  Indit  .in"  larger  part  of 
Kentucky  and  to  estabf.sh  'h»>r  a  colony  after 
the  manner  and  the  econt  .i(  i'  -i ,  of  thr  English 
Lords  Proprietors,  whose  o  .  Amfi"'-      ,as  so 

nearly  done.  Though  in  tin  hgnt «/ 1.  ,i  >  the  plan 
loses  none  of  its  dramati'  ft  all  •  t  .shows  the 
practical  defects  that  must  urelj  li.  •  prevented 
its  realization.  Like  many  another  Caviar  hunger- 
ing for  empire  and  staking:  all  to  win  it,  the  pros- 
pective lord  of  Kentucky,  us  we  shall  see,  had  left 
the  human  equation  out  of  his  calculations. 

•  RichMtJ  Henderson  (1T34-I7a5>  was  the  son  of  the  High  Sheriff 
of  Granville  County.  At  limt  an  uMi'sUnt  to  his  father,  he  studied 
law  and  soon  achieved  '.  repuUtion  by  the  brilliance  of  his  mind  and 
the  magnetism  of  his  personality.  As  presiding  Judge  at  Hillsborough 
he  ha<l  c«)me  into  conflict  with  the  violent  element  among  the  Ilegula- 
tors,  who  had  driven  him  from  the  court  and  burned  his  hou.se  and 
barns.  For  some  time  prior  to  his  elevation  to  t  he  bench,  he  hod  been 
engaged  in  land  speculations.  One  of  Boone's  biographers  suggesU 
that  Boone  may  have  been  secretly  acting  as  Henderson's  agent  during 
his  first  lonely  explorations  of  Kentucky.  However  this  may  be.  it 
does  not  appear  that  Boone  and  his  Yadkin  neighbors  were  acting  with 
Henderson  when  in  September,  1773,  they  made  their  first  attempt  to 
enter  Kentucky  as  settlers. 


THE  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROIND     in 
Richard  Hender^n  had  known  Daniel  Boone  on 
the  Yadkin;  and  it  was  Boone's  deUiled  reports 
of  the  marvelous  richness  and  beauty  of  Kentucky 
which  had  inspired  him  to  formulate  his  giKantic 
scheme  and  had  enabled  him  also  to  win  to  his 
support  several  men  of  prominence  in  the  Back 
Country.    To  sound  the  Cheroke«'s  regarding  the 
F)urchase  and  to  arrange,  if  possible,  for  a  confer- 
ence, Henderson  dispatclied  Boone  to  the  Indian 
towns  in  the  early  days  of  1775. 
j  Since  we  have  just  learned  that  Dunmore's  War 

compelled  the  Shawanoes  and  their  allies  to  relin- 
quish their  right  to  Kentucky,  that,  both  before 
and  after  that  event,  government  surveyors  wen 
in  the  territory  surveying  for  the  soldiers'  claims, 
and  that  private  individuals  had  already  laid  out 
town  sites  and  staked  holdings,  it  may  be  asked 
what  right  of  ownership  the  Cherokees  possessed 
in  Kentucky,  that  Henderson  desired  to  purchase 
it  of  them.  The  Indian  title  to  Kentucky  seems 
to  have  been  hardly  less  vague  to  the  red  men  than 
it  was  to  the  whites.  Several  of  the  nations  had 
laid  claim  to  the  territory.  As  late  as  1753.  it  will 
be  remembered,  the  Shawanoes  had  occupied  a 
town  at  Blue  Licks,  for  John  Findlay  had  been 
taken  there  by  some  of  them.    But,  before  Findlay 


■'»? 


iM 


If 


132  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
guided  Boone  through  the  Gap  in  1769,  the  Sha- 
wanoes  had  been  driven  out  by  the  Iroquois,  who 
claimed  suzerainty  over  them  as  well  as  over  the 
Cherokees.    In  1768,  the  Iroquois  had  ceded  Ken- 
tucky to  the  British  Crown  by  the  treaty  of  Fort 
Stanwix;  whereupon  the  Cherokees  had  protested 
so  vociferously  that  the  Crown's  Indian  agent,  to 
quiet  them,  had  signed  a  collateral  agreement  with 
them.    Though  claimed  by  many,  Kentucky  was 
by  common  consent  not  inhabited  by  any  of  the 
tribes.    It  was  the  great  Middle  Ground  where  the 
Indians  hunted.    It  was  the  Warriors'  Path  over 
which  they  rode  from  north  and  south  to  slaughter 
and  where  many  of  their  fiercest  encounters  took 
place.    However  shadowy  the  title  which  Hender- 
son purposed  to  buy,  there  was  one  all-sufficing 
reason  why  he  must  come  to  terms  with  the  Chero- 
kees: their  northernmost  towns  in  Tennessee  lay 
only  fifty  or  sixty  miles  below  Cumberland  Gap  and 
hence  commanded  the  route  over  which  he  must 
lead  colonists  into  his  empire  beyond  the  hills. 

The  conference  took  place  early  in  March,  1775, 
at  the  Sycamore  Shoals  of  the  Watauga  River. 
Twelve  hundred  Indians,  led  by  their  "town 
chiefs"  —  among  whom  were  the  old  warrior  and 
the  old  statesman  of  their  nation,  Oconostota  and 


THE  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    133 

Attakullakulla  —  came  to  the  treaty  grounds  and 
were  received  by  Henderson  and  his  associates  and 
several  hundred  white  men  who  were  eager  for  a 
chance  to  settle  on  new  lands.  Though  Boone  was 
now  on  his  way  into  Kentucky  for  the  Transyl- 
vania Company,  other  border  leaders  of  renown 
or  with  their  fame  still  to  win  were  present,  and 
among  them  James  Robertson,  of  serious  nuen,  and 
that  blond  gay  knight  in  buckskin,  John  Sevier. 

It  is  a  dramatic  picture  we  evolve  for  ourselves 
from  the  meager  narratives  of  this  event  —  a  mass 
of  painted  Indians  moving  through  the  sycamores 
by  the  bright  water,  to  come  presently  into  a  tense, 
immobile  semicircle  before  the  large  group  of  armed 
frontiersmen  seated  or  standing  nbout  Richard  Hen- 
derson, the  man  with  the  imperial  dream,  the  ready 
speaker  whose  flashing  eyes  and  glowing  uratory 
won  the  hearts  of  all  who  came  under  thdr  sway. 
What  though  the  Cherokee  title  be  a  flimsy  one  at 
best  and  the  price  offered  for  it  a  bagatelle!  The 
spirit  of  Forward  March!  Ls  there  in  that  great 
canvas  framed  by  forest  and  sky.  The  somber 
note  that  tones  its  lustrous  color,  as  by  a  sweep  of 
the  brush,  is  the  figure  of  the  Chickamaugan  chief. 
Dragging  Canoe,  warrior  and  seer  and  hater  of  white 
men,  who  urges  his  tribesmen  against  the  sale  and. 


fli 


134  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

when  they  will  not  hearken,  springs  from  their  midst 
into  the  clear  space  before  Henderson  and  his  band 
of  pioneers  and,  pointing  with  uplifted  arm,  warns 
them  that  a  dark  cloud  hangs  over  the  land  the 
white  man  covets  which  to  the  red  man  has  long 
been  a  bloody  ground. ' 

The  purchase,  finally  consummated,  included  the 
country  lying  between  the  Kentucky  and  Cum- 
berland Rivers  —  almost  all  the  present  State  of 
Kentucky,  with  the  adjacent  land  watered  by  the 
Cumberland  River  and  its  tributaries,  except  cer- 
tain lands  previously  leased  by  the  Indians  to  the 
Watauga  Colony.  The  tract  comprised  about  twenty 
million  acres  and  extended  into  Tennessee. 

Daniel  Boone's  work  was  to  cut  out  a  road  for 
the  wagons  of  the  Transylvania  Company's  colo- 
nists to  pass  over.  This  was  to  be  done  by  slash- 
ing away  the  briers  and  underbrush  hedging  the 
narrow  Warriors'  Path  that  made  a  direct  north- 
ward line  from  Cumberland  Gap  to  the  Ohio  bank, 
opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  River.  Just  prior 
to  the  conference  Boone  and  "thirty  guns"  had 
set  forth  from  the  Holston  to  prepare  the  road  and 
to  build  a  fort  on  whatever  site  he  should  select. 

'This  utterance  of  Dragging  Canoe's  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the 
ongin  of  the  descriptive  phrase  applied  to  Kentucky  —  "  the  Dark  and 
Bloody  Ground."  fiee  W>oaevek,  The  Winning  of  the  Wt:H.yol.  up  229 


THE  D.\RK  AND  BIX)ODY  GROUND     135 
By  April,  Henderson  and  his  first  group  of  ten- 
ants wereon  the  trail.  In  Powell's  Valley  they  came 
up  with  a  party  of  Virginians  Kentucky  bound, 
led  by  Benjamin  Logan;  and  the  two  bands  joined 
together  for  the  march.    They  had  not  gone  far 
when  they  heard  disquieting  news.   After  leaving 
Martm's  Station,  at  the  gates  of  his  new  domain, 
Henderson  received  a  letter  from  Boone  telling  of 
an  attack  by  Indians,  in  which  two  of  his  n.en 
had  been  killed,  but  "we  stood  on  the  ground  and 
guarded  our  baggage  till  the  day  and  lost  noth- 
mg."  ■  These  tidings,  indicating  that  despite  treaties 
and  sales,  the  savages  were  again  on  the  warpath. 
mightwellalarmHenderson'scolonists.   Whilethey 
halted,  some  indecisive,  others  frankly  for  retreat, 
there  appeared   a  company  of  men   making  all 
haste  out  of  Kentucky  because  of  Indian  unrest. 
Six  of  these  Henderson  persuaded  to  turn  again 
and  go  in  with  him;  but  this  addition  hardly  off- 
set  the  loss  of  those  members  of  his  party  who 
thought  it  too  perilous  to  proceed.     Henderson's 
own  corn-age  did  not  falter.    He  had  staked  his  all 
on  this  stupendous  venture  and  for  him  it  was  for- 
ward to  wealth  and  glory  or  retreat  into  poverty 
and  eclipse.     Boone,  in  the  heart  of  the  danger. 

■  BoRart.  Daniel  Boone  and  the  Hunter,  of  Ke,Uucky.  p.  H\. 


'il 


hi 

i 


1: 


II 


136  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
was  making  the  same  stand.    "If  we  give  way  to 
them  [the  Indians]  now,"  he  wrote,  "it  will  ever 
be  the  case." 

Signs  of  discord  other  than  Indian  opposition 
met  Henderson  ;is  he  resolutely  pushed  on.  His 
conversations  with  some  of  the  fugitives  from  Ken» 
tucky  disclosed  the  first  indications  of  the  storm 
that  was  to  blow  away  the  empire  he  was  going  in 
to  found.  He  told  them  that  the  claims  they  had 
staked  in  Kentucky  would  not  hold  good  with  the 
Transylvania  Company.  Whereupon  James  Mc- 
Afee, who  was  leading  a  group  of  returning  men, 
stated  his  opinion  that  the  Transylvania  Com- 
pany's claim  would  not  hold  good  with  Virginia. 
After  the  parley,  three  of  McAfee's  brothers  turned 
back  and  went  with  Henderson's  party,  hut 
whether  with  intent  to  join  his  colony  or  to  make 
good  their  own  claims  is  not  apparent.  Benjamin 
Logan  continued  amicably  with  Henderson  on  the 
march  but  did  not  recognize  him  as  Lord  Proprie- 
tor of  Kentucky.  He  left  the  Transylvania  cara- 
van shortly  after  entering  the  territory,  branched 
off  in  the  direction  of  Harrodsburg,  and  founded 
St.  Asaph's  Station,  in  the  present  Lincoln  County, 
independently  of  Henderson  though  the  site  lay 
within  Henderson's  purchase. 


Vi 


THE  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    137 

Notwithstanding  delays  and  apprehensions,  Hen- 
derson and  his  colonists  finally  reached  Boone's 
Fort,  which  Daniel  and  his  "thirty  guns"  —  lack- 
ing two  since  the  Indian  encounter  —  had  erected 
at  the  mouth  of  Otter  Creek. 

An  attractive  buoyancy  of  teniperainenl  is  re- 
vealed in  Henderson's  description  in  his  journal  of 
a  giant  elm  with  tall  straight  trunk  and  even  f;;Iiage 
that  shaded  a  space  of  one  hundred  feet.  Instantly 
he  chose  this  "divine  elm"  as  the  council  chamber 
of  Transylvania.  Under  its  leafage  he  read  the 
constitution  of  the  new  colony.  It  would  be  too 
great  a  stretch  of  fancy  to  call  it  a  democratic  doc- 
ument, for  it  was  not  that,  except  in  deft  phrases. 
Power  was  certainly  declared  to  be  vested  in  the 
people;  but  the  substance  of  power  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  Proprietors. 

Terms  for  land  grants  were  generous  enough  in 
the  beginning,  although  Henderson  made  the  fatal 
mistake  of  demanding  quitrents  one  of  the 
causes  of  dissatisfaction  which  had  led  to  the  Regu- 
lators' rising  in  North  Carolina.  In  September  he 
augmented  this  error  by  more  than  doubling  the 
price  of  land,  adding  a  fee  of  eight  shillings  for 
surveying,  and  reserving  to  the  Proprietors  one- 
half  of  all  gold,  silver,  lead,  and  sulphur  found  on 


<s 


\  i 


a 


1S8  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
the  land.  No  land  near  sulphur  springs  or  show- 
ing evidences  of  metals  was  to  be  granted  to  set- 
tlers. Moreover,  at  the  Company's  store  the  prices 
charged  for  lead  were  said  to  be  too  high  —  lead 
being  necessary  for  hunting,  and  hunting  being  the 
only  means  of  procuring  food  —  while  the  wages 
of  labor,  as  fixed  by  the  Company,  were  too  low. 
These  terms  bore  too  heavily  on  poor  men  who 
were  risking  their  lives  in  the  colony. 

Hence  newcomers  passed  by  Boonesborough,  as 
the  Transylvania  settlement  was  presently  called, 
and  went  elsewhere.    They  settled  on  Henderson's 
land  but  refused  his  terms,    l^hey  joined  in  their 
sympathies  with  James  Harrod,  who,  having  es- 
tablished Harrodsburg  in  the  previous  year  at  the 
invitation  of  Virginia,  was  not  in  the  humor  to 
acknowledge  Henderson's  claim  or  to  pay  him 
tribute.     All  were  willing  to  combine  with  the 
Transylvania  Company  for  defense,  and  to  enforce 
law  they  would  unite  in  bonds  of  brotherhood  in 
Kentucky,  even  as  they  had  been  one  with  each 
other  on  the  earlier  frontier  now  left  behind  them. 
But  they  would  call  no  man  master;  they  had  done 
with  feudalism.    That  Henderson  should  not  have 
foreseen  this,  especially  after  the  upheaval  in  North 
Carolina,  proves  him,  in  spite  of  all  his  brilliant 


ni 


THE  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND     1S9 

gifts,  to  have  been  a  man  out  of  touch  with  the 
spirit  of  the  time. 

The  war  of  the  Revolution  broke  forth  and  the 
Indians  descended  upon  the  Kentucky  stations. 
Defense  was  the  one  problem  in  all  minds,  and 
defense  required  powder  and  lead  in  plenty.    The 
Transylvania  Company  was  not  able  to  provide 
the  means  of  defense  against  the  hordes  of  savages 
whom  Henry  Hamilton,  the  British  Governor  at 
Detroit,  was  sending  to  make  war  on  the  frontiers. 
Practical  men  like  Harrod  and  George  Rogers 
Clark  —  who,  if  not  a  practical  man  in  his  own 
interests,  was  a  most  practical  soldier  —  saw  that 
unification  of  interests  within  the  territory  with 
the  backing  of  either  Virginia  or  Congress  was 
necessary.    Clark  personally  would  have  preferred 
to  see  the  settlers  combine  as  a  freemen's  state. 
It  was  plain  that  they  would  not  combine  and 
stake  their  lives  as  a  unit  to  hold  Kentucky  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Transylvania  Company,  whose  au- 
thority some  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  the 
territory  had  refused  to  recognize.    The  Proprie- 
tary of  Transylvania  could  continue  to  exist  only 
to  the  danger  of  every  life  in  Kentucky. 

While  the  Proprietors  sent  a  delegate  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  to  win  official  recognition  for 


^;U 


ivi 


r 


•    1 


fl 


:.  ) 


i    i 


WW 


140  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
Transylvania,  eighty-four  men  at  Harrodsburg 
drew  up  a  petition  addressed  to  Virginia  steting  their 
doubts  of  the  legality  of  Henderson's  title  and  re- 
questing  Virginia  to  assert  her  authority  according 
to  the  stipulations  of  her  charter.    That  defense 
was  the  primary  and  essential  motive  of  the  Har- 
rodsburg Remonstrance  seems   plain,  for  when 
George  Rogers  Clark  set  off  on  foot  with  one  com- 
panion to  lay  the  document  before  the  Virginian 
authorities,  he  also  went  to  plead  for  a  load  of 
powder.    In  his  account  of  that  hazardous  journey, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  makes  scant  reference  to 
Transylvania,  except  to  say  that  the  greed  of  the 
Proprietors  would  soon  bring  the  colony  to  its  end, 
but  shows  that  his  mind  was  seldom  off  the  powder. 
It  is  a  detail  of  history  that  the  Continentel  Con- 
gress refused  to  seat  the  delegate  from  Transyl- 
vania.    Henderson  himself  went  to  Virginia  to 
make  the  fight  for  his  land  before  the  Assembly.  • 

The  magnetic  center  of  Boonesborough's  life 
was  the  lovable  and  unassuming  Daniel  Boone. 
Soon  after  the  building  of  the  fort  Daniel  had 
brought  in  his  wife  and  family.    He  used  often  to 

■  In  1778  Virginia  disallowed  Henderson's  title  but  granted  him 
two  hundred  thousand  acres  between  the  Green  and  Ke'^tjcky 
rivers  for  hu  trouble  and  expense  in  opening  up  the  country. 


I    t 


THE  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    141 

atate  with  a  mild  pride  that  his  wife  and  daughters 
were  the  first  white  w<mien  to  stand  on  the  banks 
of  the  Kentucky  River.  That  pride  had  not  been 
unmixed  with  anxiety;  his  daughter  Jemima  and 
two  daughters  of  his  friend,  Richard  Calloway, 
while  boating  on  the  river  had  been  captured  by 
Shawanoes  and  carried  off.  Boone,  accompani«»(l 
by  the  girls'  lovers  and  by  John  Floyd  (eager  to 
repay  his  debt  of  life-saving  to  Boone)  had  pursued 
them,  tracing  the  way  the  captors  had  taken  by 
broken  twigs  and  scraps  of  dress  goods  which  one 
of  the  girls  had  contrived  to  leave  in  their  path, 
had  come  on  the  Indians  unawares,  killed  them, 
and  recovered  the  three  girls  unhurt. 

In  the  summer  of  1776,  Virginia  look  official 
note  of  "Captain  Boone  of  Boonesborough, "  for 
she  sent  him  a  small  supply  of  powder.  The  men 
of  the  little  colony,  which  had  begun  so  preten- 
tiously with  its  constitution  and  assembly,  were 
now  obliged  to  put  all  other  plans  aside  and  to 
concentrate  on  the  question  of  food  and  defense. 
There  was  a  dangerous  scarcity  of  powder  and  lead. 
The  nearest  points  at  which  these  necessaries  could 
be  procured  were  the  Watauga  and  Holston  River 
settlements,  which  were  themselves  none  too  well 
stocked.    Harrod  and  Logan,  some  time  in  1777, 


li 


\v 


•w 


mi 


if&B 


142  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

reached  the  Watauga  fort  with  three  or  four  pack- 
horses  and  filled  their  packs  from  Sevier's  store; 
but,  as  they  neared  home,  they  were  detected  by 
red  scouts  and  Logan  was  badly  wounded  before 
he  and  Harrod  were  able  to  drive  their  precious 
load  safely  through  the  gates  at  Harrodsburg.    In 
the  autumn  of  1777,  Clark,  with  a  boatload  of  am- 
munition, reached  Maysville  on  the  Ohio,  having 
successfully  run   the  gauntlet  between  banks  in 
possession  of  the  foe.    He  had  wrestetl  the  powder 
and  lead  from  the  Virginia  Council  by  threaU  to 
the  effect  that  if  Virginia  was  so  willing  to  lose 
Kentucky  —  for  of  course  "a  country  not  worth 
defending  is  not  worth  claiming"  —  he  and  his 
fellows  were  quite  ready  to  take  Kentucky  for 
themselves  and  to  hold  it  with  their  swords  against 
all  comers,  Virginia  included.    By  even  such  co- 
gent reasoning  had  he  convinced  the  Council  — 
which  had  tried  to  hedge  by  expressing  doubts 
that  Virginia  would  receive  the  Kentucky  settlers 
as  "citizens  of  the  State"  — that   it  would  be 
cheaper  to  give  him  the  powder. 

Because  so  many  settlers  had  fled  and  the  others 
had  come  closer  together  for  their  common  good, 
Harrodsburg  and  Boonesborough  were  now  the  only 
occupied  posts  in  Kentucky.     Other  settlements. 


.* 
'* 


THE  DARK  AND  BIjOODV  GROIND     US 

once  thriving,  were  ahamloned;  an<l.  unrli-r  ihe  ter- 
ror, the  Wild  reclaimed  them.  In  April,  1777, Boonea- 
borough  underwent  its  first  niege.  Boone,  leading 
a  sortie,  wan  iihot  and  he  fell  with  a  shattered  ankle. 
An  Indian  rushed  upon  him  and  was  swinging  the 
tomahawk  over  him  when  Simon  Kenton,  giant 
frontiernman  and  hero  of  many  daring  dce<ls,  rushed 
forward,  shot  the  Indian,  threw  Boone  acrasM  his 
back,  and  fought  his  way  denperately  to  safety. 
It  was  some  months  ere  Boone;  was  his  nimble  self 
again.  But  though  he  c>ould  not  "stand  tip  to  the 
guns,"  he  directed  all  operations  from  his  cabin. 

The  next  year  Boone  was  ready  for  new  ven- 
tures growing  from  the  settlers'  needs.  Salt  was 
necessary  to  preserve  meat  through  the  summer. 
Accordingly  Boone  and  twenty -seven  men  went  up 
to  the  Blue  Licks  in  February,  1778,  to  replenish 
their  supply  by  the  simple  process  of  boiling  the 
salt  water  of  the  Licks  till  the  saline  particles  ad- 
hered to  the  kettles.  Boone  was  returning  alone, 
with  a  pack-horse  load  of  salt  and  game,  when  a 
blinding  snowstorm  overtook  him  and  hid  from 
view  four  stealthy  Shawanoes  on  his  trail.  He  was 
seized  and  carried  to  a  camp  of  120  warriors  led  by 
the  French  Canadian,  Dequindre,  and  James  and 
George  Girty,  two  white  renegades.     Among  the 


)  , 


r, 


:lfl 


•  !V'\ 


.  fl 


\l' 


144  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Indians  were  Home  of  those  u  Iio  had  captured  him  on 
hi«  first  exploring  trip  through  Kentucky  and  whom 
he  had  twice  given  the  .slip.  Their  hilarity  was  un- 
bounded. Boone  quickly  learned  that  this  band  was 
on  its  way  to  surprise  Booncsborough.  It  was  a  sea- 
son when  Indian  attacks  were  not  expected;  nearly 
threescore  of  the  men  were  at  the  salt  spring  and, 
to  make  matters  worse,  the  walls  of  the  new  fort 
where  the  settlers  and  their  famili«i  had  gathered 
were  as  yet  completed  on  only  three  sides.  Boones- 
borough  was,  in  short,  well-nigh  defenseless.  To 
turn  the  Indians  from  their  purpose,  Boone  con- 
ceived the  desperate  scheme  of  offering  to  lead 
them  to  the  salt  makers'  camp  with  the  assurance 
that  he  and  his  companions  were  willing  to  join  the 
tribe.  He  understoo<l  Indians  well  enough  to  feel 
sure  that  once  possesse<l  of  nearly  thirty  prisoners, 
the  Shawanoes  would  not  trouble  further  about 
Boonesborough  but  would  hasten  to  make  a  tri- 
umphal entry  into  their  own  towns.  That  some, 
perhaps  all,  of  the  white  men  would  assuredly  die, 
he  knew  well;  but  it  was  the  only  way  to  save  the 
women  and  children  in  Boonesborough.  In  spite 
of  Dequindre  and  the  Girtys,  who  were  leading  a 
military  expedition  for  the  reduction  of  a  fort,  the 
Shawanoes  fell  in  with  the  suggestion.    When  they 


ft  \ 


iS. 


THE  DARK  AND  BliOODY  GROUND     145 

h4d  taken  their  prisoners,  the  more  bloodthirsty 
warriors  in  the  band  wunte(J  to  loniahuwk  them 
all  on  the  spot.  By  his  diplomatir  «lis<-ourse,  how- 
ever, Boone  di-HsuadtHl  them,  for  the  time  being  at 
least,  and  the  whole  company  set  off  for  the  town« 
on  the  Litth'  Miami. 

The  weather  beta  me  .severe,   very   Uttle  game 
cro.ssed  their  route.  aiuJ  fur  days  they  subsistetl  on 
slippery  elm  b^rk.      The  U>vers  of  blood  did  not 
hold  back  their  scalping  knives  and  several  of  the 
prisoners  perished;  but  Black  Fish,  the  «hief  tlif-n 
of   most   power  in   Shawanoe  council.-,   adoplnl 
Boone  as  his  son,  and  gave  him  the  naiue  of  Sb«'i- 
lowee,  or  Big  Turtle.    Though  watched  zealously 
to  prevent  escape.  Big  Turtle  wa.s  treated  with 
every  consideration  and  honor;  and,  as  we  would 
say  today,  he  played  the  game.    He  entered  into 
the  Indian  life  with  apparent  zest,  took  part  in 
hunts  and   sports   and   the   races   and   shooting 
matches  in  which  the  Indians  delighted,  but  he 
was  always  careful  not  to  outrun  or  outshoot  his 
opponents.    Black  Fish  took  him  to  Detroit  when 
some  of  the  tribe  escorted  the  remainder  of  the 
prisoners  to  the  British  post .    There  he  met  Gover- 
nor Hamilton  and,  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  his 
liberty,  he  led  that  dignitary  to  believe  that  he 


/If- 


'      /. 


f\ 


..  f: 
■I 


!• 


I  i 


4 


'.   1 


P 


k : 


!', 


146  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

and  the  other  people  of  Boonesborough  were  eager 
to  move  to  Detroit  and  take  refuge  under  the 
British  flag. '  It  is  said  that  Boone  always  carried 
in  a  wallet  round  his  neck  the  King's  commission 
given  him  in  Dunmore's  War;  and  that  he  ex- 
hibited it  to  Hamilton  to  bear  out  his  story.  Hamil- 
ton sought  to  ransom  him  from  the  Indians,  but 
Black  Fish  would  not  surrender  his  new  son.  The 
Governor  gave  Boone  e  pony,  with  saddle  and 
trappings,  and  other  presents,  including  trinkets 
to  be  used  in  procuring  his  needs  and  possibly  his 
liberty  from  the  Shawanoes. 

Black  Fish  then  took  his  son  home  to  Chillicothe. 
Here  Boone  found  Delawares  and  Mingos  assem- 
bling with  the  main  body  of  the  Shawanoe  warriors. 
The  war  belt  was  being  carried  through  the  Ohio 
coimtrj'.  Again  Boonesborough  and  Harrodsburg 
were  to  be  the  first  settlements  attacked.  To  es- 
caiic  and  give  warning  was  now  the  one  purpose 
th.it  obsessed  Boom'.    He  redoubled  his  efforts  to 

■  So  well  did  Boone  play  his  part  that  he  arousecl  suspicion  even 
in  those  who  knew  him  beat.  After  his  return  to  Boonesborough 
hi  v>ld  friend,  Calloway,  formally  accused  him  of  treachery  on  two 
counts:  that  Boone  had  betrayed  the  salt  makers  to  the  Indians  and 
had  planned  to  betray  Boonesborough  to  the  British.  Boone  was 
tried  and  acquitted.  His  simple  explanation  of  his  acts  satisfied  the 
court-martial  and  made  him  a  greater  hero  than  ever  among  the 
frontier  folk. 


f*  = 


hi 


\iA 


.*' 


THE  D.UIK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    147 

throw  the  Indians  off  Ihfir  guard.  IIo  sang  and 
whistleci  blitlu-Iy  about  the  camp  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Scioto  River,  whither  he  had  accompanied 
his  Indian  father  to  help  in  the  salt  Iwiling.  In 
short,  he  seemed  so  very  happy  that  one  day  Black 
Fish  took  his  eye  oif  him  for  a  few  moments  to 
watch  the  passing  of  u  flock  of  turkeys.  Big  Tur- 
tle passed  with  the  flock,  leaving  no  trace.  To  his 
lamenting  parent  it  must  have  seemed  as  though 
he  had  vanished  into  the  air.  Dani«l  crossed  the 
Ohio  and  ran  the  KJO  miles  to  Boonesborough  in  four 
days,  during  which  time  he  ha<l  oidy  one  meal, 
rr«)m  a  buffalo  he  shot  at  the  Blue  Licks.  When  he 
reacheil  the  fort  after  an  absenc-e  of  nearly  five 
months,  he  found  that  his  wife  had  given  him  up 
for  dead  and  had  returned  to  the  Yadkin. 

Boone  now  began  with  all  speed  to  direct  prepa- 
rations to  withstand  a  siege.  Owing  to  the  In- 
dian's leisurely  system  of  councils  and  ceremonies 
before  taking  the  warpath,  it  was  not  until  the 
first  week  in  S««ptember  that  Black  Fish's  painted 
warriors,  with  some  Frenchmen  under  Detiuindre, 
appeared  before  Boonesborough.  Nine  days  the 
siege  lasted  and  was  the  longest  in  border  history. 
Dequindre,  seeing  that  the  fort  might  not  be 
taken,  resorted  to  trickery.    He  requested  Boone 


n 


I  ;• 


••/ 


m  ? 


e  ! 


i*  « 


fi.! 


148  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

and  a  few  of  his  men  to  come  out  for  a  parley, 
saying  that  his  orders  from  Hamilton  were  to 
protect  the  lives  of  the  Americans  as  far  as  pos- 
sible. Boone's  friend,  Calloway,  urged  against 
acceptance  of  the  apparently  benign  proposal 
which  was  made,  so  Dequindre  averred,  for 
" bienfaisance  et  humanite."  But  the  words  were 
the  words  of  a  white  man,  and  Boone  hearkened  to 
them.  With  eight  of  the  garrison  he  went  out  to 
the  parity.  After  a  long  talk  in  which  good  will 
was  exprt/,-sed  on  both  sides,  it  was  suggested  by 
Black  Fish  that  they  all  shake  hands  and,  as  there 
were  .so  many  more  Indians  than  white  men,  two 
Indians  should,  of  cour.se,  shake  hands  with  one 
white  man,  each  grasping  one  of  his  hands.  The 
moment  that  their  hands  gripped,  the  trick  was 
clear,  for  the  Indians  exerted  their  strength  to  drag 
off  the  white  men.  Desperate  scu£Bing  ensued  in 
which  the  whites  with  diflSculty  freed  themselves 
and  ran  for  the  fort.  Calloway  had  prepared  for 
emergencies.  The  pursuing  Indians  were  met  with 
a  deadly  fire.  After  a  defeated  attempt  to  mine 
the  fort  the  enemy  withdrew. 

The  successful  defense  of  Boonesborough  was 
an  achievement  of  national  importance,  for  had 
Boonesborough  fallen,   Harrodsburg  alone  could 


jl 


THE  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND  149 
not  have  stood.  The  Indians  under  the  British 
would  have  overrun  Kentucky ;  and  George  Rogers 
Clark  —  whose  base  for  his  Illinois  operations  was 
the  Kentucky  forts  —  could  not  have  made  the 
campaigns  which  wrested  the  Northwest  from  the 
control  of  Great  Britain. 

Again  Virginia  took  official  note  of  Captain 
Boone  when  in  1779  the  Legislature  established 
Boonesborough  "a  town  for  the  reception  of 
traders"  and  appointed  Boone  himself  one  of  the 
trustees  to  attend  to  the  sale  and  registration  of 
lots.  An  odd  office  that  was  for  Daniel,  who  never 
learned  to  attend  to  the  registration  of  his  own; 
he  declined  it.  His  name  appears  again,  however, 
a  little  later  when  Virginia  made  the  whole  of  Ken- 
tucky wie  of  her  counties  with  the  following  officers: 
Colonel  David  Robiason,  County  Lieutenant; 
George  Rogers  Clark.  Anthony  Bledsoe,  and  John 
Bowman,  Majors:  Daniel  Boone,  James  Harrod, 
Benjamin  Logan,  and  John  Todd,  Captains. 


/     » 


>^' 


Boonesborough's  successful  resistance  caused  land 
speculators  as  well  as  prospective  settlers  to  take 
heart  of  grace.  Parties  made  their  way  to  Boones- 
borough, Harrodsburg,  and  even  to  the  Falls  of 
the  Ohio,  where  Clark's  fcM-t  aod  blockhouaes  now 


' 


i 


150  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

stood.  In  the  summer  of  1779  Clark  had  erected 
on  the  Kentucky  side  of  the  river  a  large  fort 
which  became  the  nucleus  of  the  town  of  Louis- 
vnlle.  Here,  while  he  was  eating  his  heart  out 
with  impatience  for  money  and  men  to  enahlt* 
him  to  march  to  the  attack  of  Detroit,  as  he  had 
planned,  he  amused  himself  l>y  drawing  up  plans 
for  a  city.  He  laid  out  private  sections  and  public 
parks  and  contemplated  the  bringing  in  of  fami- 
lies only  to  inhabit  his  city,  for,  oddly  enough,  he 
who  never  married  was  going  to  make  short  shift 
of  mere  bachelors  in  his  City  Beautiful.  Between 
pen  scratches,  no  doubt,  he  looked  out  frequentlj' 
upon  the  river  to  descry  if  possible  a  boatload  of 
ammunition  or  the  banners  of  the  troops  he  had 
been  promise*!. 

When  neither  appeared,  he  gave  up  the  idea  of 
Detroit  and  set  about  erecting  <lefenses  on  the 
southern  border,  for  the  Choctaws  and  Cherokees, 
united  under  a  white  leader  named  Colbert,  were 
threatening  Kentucky  by  way  of  the  Mississippi. 
He  built  in  1780  Fort  JeflFerson  in  what  is  now 
Ballard  County,  and  had  barely  completed  the 
new  post  and  garrisoned  it  with  about  thirty  men 
when  it  was  l)esieged  by  Colbert  and  his  savages. 
The  Indians,  assaulting  by  night,  were  lured  into 


THE  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND  l.-Jl 
a  position  directly  before  a  cannon  which  pourecJ 
Iea<i  into  a  mass  of  them.  The  remainder  fled  in 
terror  from  the  vicinity  of  the  fort;  but  Collierf 
succeeded  in  rallying  them  and  was  returning  to 
the  attack  when  he  suddenly  encountered  Clark 
with  a  company  of  men  and  was  forcinl  to  abamlon 
his  enterprise. 

Clark  knew  that  the  Ohio  Indians  would  come 
down  on  the  settlements  again  during  the  summer 
and  that  to  meet  their  onslaughts  every  man  in 
Kentucky  would  be  requinnl.  He  learnwi  that 
there  was  a  new  influx  of  land  seekers  over  the 
Wilderness  Road  and  that  speculators  were  <loing 
a  thriving  business  in  Harrodsburg;  so,  leaving  his 
company  to  protect  Fort  Jefferson,  he  took  two 
men  with  him  and  started  across  the  wilds  on 
foot  for  Harro<Jsburg.  To  evade  the  notice  of  the 
Indian  bands  which  were  moving  about  the  coun- 
try the  three  stripp*^]  and  painted  themselves 
as  warriors  and  donned  the  feathereil  hemldress. 
So  successful  was  their  disguise  that  tiiey  were 
fired  on  by  a  party  of  surveyors  near  the  outskirts 
of  Harrodsburg. 

The  records  do  not  state  what  were  the  sensa- 
tions of  certain  speculators  in  a  land  office  in 
Harrodsburg  when  a  blue-eyeii  savage  in  a  war 


), 


;  I 


15i  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
bonnet  sprang  through  the  doorway  and,  with  up- 
lifted weapon,  declared  the  office  closed;  but  we 
get  a  hint  of  the  power  of  Clark's  personality  and 
of  his  genius  for  dominating  men  from  the  terse 
report  that  he  "  enrolletj "  t  he  speculators.  He  was 
informed  that  another  party  of  men,  more  nervous 
than  these,  was  now  on  its  way  out  of  Kentucky. 
In  haste  ho  dispatched  a  dozen  frontiersmen  to 
cut  the  party  off  at  Crab  Orchard  and  take  away 
the  gun  of  every  man  who  refuse<i  to  turn  back 
and  do  his  bit  for  Kentucky.  To  Clark  a  man 
was  a  gun,  and  he  meant  that  every  gun  should 
do  its  duty. 

The  leaders  and  pioneers  of  the  Dark  and  Bloody 
Ground  were  now  warriors,  all  under  Clark's  com- 
mand, while  for  two  years  longer  the  Red  Terror 
ranged  Kentucky,  falling  with  savage  force  now 
here,  now  there.  In  the  first  battle  of  1780,  at  the 
Blue  Licks,  Daniel's  brother,  Edward  Boone,  was 
killed  and  scalped.  Later  on  in  the  war  his  second 
son,  Israel,  suffered  a  like  fate.  The  toll  of  life 
among  the  settlers  was  heavy.  Many  of  the  best- 
known  border  leaders  were  slain.  Food  and  pow- 
der often  ran  short.  Com  might  be  planted,  but 
whether  it  would  be  harvested  or  not  the  planters 
never  knew;  and  the  hunter's  rifl««  shot,  necessary 


•  a 


THE  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    15S 

though  it  was,  proved  only  too  often  an  invita- 
tion to  the  lurking  foe.  But  sometimes,  through 
all  the  dangers  of  forest  and  trail,  Daniel  Boone 
slipped  away  silently  to  Harrodsburg  to  confer 
with  Clark;  or  Clark  himself,  in  the  Indian  guise 
that  suited  the  wild  man  in  him  not  ill.  nmde  his 
way  to  and  from  the  garrisons  which  looked  to 
him  for  everything. 

Twice  Clark  gathered  together  the  "guns"  of 
Kentucky  and,  marching  north  into  the  enemy's 
country,  swept  down  upon  the  Indian  towns  of 
Piqua  and  Chillicothe  and  razed  them.  In  1782, 
in  the  second  of  these  enterprises,  his  cousin, 
Joseph  Rogers,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  and 
;'dopted  by  the  Indians  and  then  wore  Indian 
garb,  was  shot  down  by  one  of  Clark's  men.  On 
this  expedition  Boone  and  Harrod  arc  .said  to  have 
accompanied  Clark. 

The  ever  present  terror  and  horror  of  llio.sc  da\  .s. 
especially  of  the  two  years  preceding  thi.s  expedi- 
tion, are  vividly  suggested  by  the  quaint  remark 
of  an  old  woman  who  had  lived  through  them,  .is 
recorded  for  us  by  a  traviler.  'i'he  most  licautifiil 
sight  she  had  seen  in  Kentucky,  she  said,  was  a 
young  man  dying  a  natural  «leath  in  his  lu-d.  Dead 
but  unmarred  by  hatchet  or  scalping  knife,  he  was 


ti 


,    I! 


11 


. 


'  t 


k  i 


154  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

so  rare  and  comely  a  picture  that  the  women  of  the 
post  sat  up  all  night  looking  at  him. 

But,  we  ask.  what  golden  emoluments  were  show- 
ered by  a  grateful  country  on  the  men  who  thus 
hekl  the  land  through  those  years  of  want  and 
war,  and  saved  an  empire  for  the  Union?  What 
practical  recognition  was  there  of  these  brave 
and  unselfish  men  who  daily  risked  their  lives  and 
faced  the  stealth  and  cruelty  lurking  in  the  wilder- 
ness ways?  There  is  meager  eloquence  in  the  rec- 
ords. Here,  for  instance,  is  a  letter  from  George 
Rogers  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  dated 
May  «7,  1783: 

Sir.  Nothing  but  necessity  could  induce  nie  to  make 
the  following  request  to  Your  Excellency,  which  is  to 
grant  me  a  small  sum  of  money  on  account;  as  I  can 
assure  you.  Sir,  that  I  am  exceedingly  distressed  for  the 
want  of  necessary  clothing  etc  and  don't  know  any 
channel  through  wliich  I  could  procure  any  except  of 
the  Executive.  The  State  I  bcliovc  will  fall  consider- 
ably in  my  debt.  Any  supplies  which  Your  Excellency 
favors  me  with  might  be  deducted  out  of  my  accounts. ' 

Clark  had  spent  all  his  own  substance  and  all  else 
he  could  beg,  borrow  —  or  appropriate  —  in  the 
conquest  of  Illinois  and  the  defense  of  Kentucky. 

■  Calendar  of  Virfinia  State  Paper.i,  vol.  iii,  p.  487. 


'I' 


THE  D.VRK  AM)  BI/DODY  GROUND  1.M 
His  only  reward  from  Vir^iniu  v^us  n  ^rant  of  land 
from  which  he  realizwl  nothing,  and  dismissal  from 
her  service  when  she  needed  him  no  longer. 

All  that  Clark  had  ask«-d  for  himself  was  a  com- 
mission in  the  Continental  Army.  This  was  deni»-d 
him.  as  it  appears  now,  not  through  his  own  errors, 
which  had  not  at  that  time  taken  hold  on  him,  hut 
through  th«'  influence  of  powerful  enemies.  It  is 
•said  that  both  Spain  and  England,  stt-ing  «  great 
soldier  without  .service  for  his  sword,  made  him 
offers,  which  he  refused.  As  long  as  any  acreage 
remained  to  him  on  which  to  raise  money,  he  con- 
tinned  to  pay  the  debts  he  had  contracted  to 
finance  his  expeditions,  and  in  this  course  he  had 
the  assistance  of  his  younpest  brother,  William, 
to  whom  he  assigned  his  Indiana  grant. 

His  health  impaired  by  hardship  and  exjwsure 
and  his  heart  broken  by  his  ct>untry's  indifference. 
Clark  sank  into  alcoholic  excesses.  In  his  sixtieth 
year,  just  six  years  before  his  death,  and  when  he 
was  a  helpless  paralyJic,  he  was  granted  a  pension 
of  four  hundred  dollars.  There  is  a  ring  of  bitter 
irony  in  the  words  with  which  lie  accepted  the 
sword  sent  him  by  Virginia  in  his  cripjiled  old  age: 
"When  Virginia  needed  a  sword  I  gave  her  one." 
He  died  near  Louisville  on  February  Vi,  1818. 


)  ^j 
Hi 


i 


'i[ 


i   ■ 

•1 


U 


m      i 

m 


r 

>        ! 

'     i 

'i! 


156  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Kentucky  was  ttdmitted  to  the  Union  in  ITdil. 
But  even  before  Kentucky  became  a  State  her 
affairs,  particularly  as  to  land,  were  arranged,  let 
us  say,  on  a  practical  business  basis.  Then  it  was 
discovered  that  Daniel  Boone  had  no  legal  claim 
to  any  foot  of  ground  in  Kentucky.  Daniel  owned 
nothing  but  the  clothes  he  wore;  and  for  those  — 
as  well  as  for  much  i>owder,  lead,  food,  and  snch 
trifles  —  he  was  heavily  in  debt. 

So,  in  1788,  Daniel  Boone  put  the  Ii.st  of  his  debts 
in  his  wallet,  gathered  his  wife  and  his  younger  sons 
about  him,  and,  shouldering  his  hunter's  rifle,  once 
more  turned  towards  tht  wilds.  The  country  of  the 
Great  Kanawha  in  West  Virginia  was  still  a  wilder- 
ness, and  a  hunter  and  trapper  might,  in  some  years, 
earn  enough  to  pay  his  debts.  For  others,  now,  the 
paths  he  had  hewn  and  made  safe;  for  Boone  once 
more  the  wilderness  road. 


i 


-.1 


h-* 


Mr 


tv 


CHAPTER  VIII 


V 

I 


TJCNNEMSER 

Indian  law,  tradition,  and  even  superstition  had 
shaped  the  conditions  which  the  pioneers  faced 
when  they  crossed  the  mountains.     This  savage 
inheritance  had  dec'-ee<l  that  Kentucky  should  he 
a  dark  and  bloody  ground,  fostering  no  life  hut  that 
of  four-footed  beasts,  its  fertile  sod  never  to  stir 
with  the  green  push  of  the  corn.    And  so  the  white 
men  who  went  into  Kentucky  to  build  and  to  plant 
went  as  warriors  go,  and  for  every  cabin  they 
erect «1  they  battled  as  warriors  to  hold  a  fort.    In 
the  first  years  they  planted  little  corn  and  reaped 
less,  for  it  may  be  said  that  their  rifles  were  never 
out  of  their  hands.     We  have  seen  how  stations 
were  built  and  abandoned  until  but  two  stood. 
Untiring  vigilance  and  ceaseless  warfare  were  the 
price  paid  by  the  first  Kentuckians  ere  they  turned 
the  Indian's  place  of  desolation  and  death  into  a 
land  productive  and  a  living  habitation. 

157 


MlCaOCOPV   RiSOlUTION   TEST   CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


A    APPLIED  IIVMGE 


1653  Cast   Main   SIrmt 

Rochester.  New  York        14609      USA 

(716)   *82  -  0300  -  Phon, 

(716)   288  -  5989  -  Fo« 


'1] 


158  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Herein  lies  the  difference,  slight  apparently,  yet 
significant,  between  the  first  Kentucky  and  the 
first  Tennessee"  colonies.  Within  the  memory  of 
the  Indians  only  one  tribe  had  «vor  attempted 
to  make  their  home  in  Kentucky  —  a  tribe  of  the 
fighting  Shawanoes  —  and  they  had  been  terribly 
chastised  for  their  temerity.  But  Tennessee  was 
the  home  of  the  Cherokees.  and  at  Chickasaw 
Bluffs  (Memphis)  began  the  southward  trail  to 
the  principal  towns  of  the  Chickasaws.  By  the 
red  man's  fiat,  then,  human  life  might  abide  in 
Tennessee,  though  not  in  Kentucky,  and  it  fol- 
lowed that  in  seasons  of  peace  the  frontiersmen 
might  settle  in  Tennessee.  So  it  was  that  as  early 
as  1757,  before  the  great  Cherokee  war,  a  company 
of  Virginians  under  Andrew  Lewis  had,  on  an 
invitation  from  the  Indians,  erected  Fort  Loudon 
near  Great  Telliko,  the  Cherokees'  principal  town, 
and  that,  after  the  treaty  of  peace  in  1761,  Waddell 
and  his  rangers  of  North  Carolina  had  erected  a 
fort  on  the  Holston. 

Though  Fort  Loudon  had  fallen  tragically  dur- 
ing the  war,  and  though  Waddell 's  fort  had  been 

'  Tennessee.  The  name,  Ten-as-se,  appears  on  .Adair's  map  as  one 
of  the  old  Cherokee  towns.  Apparently  neither  the  meaning  nor  the 
reas<m  why  the  colonists  called  Ixith  stalp  and  river  by  this  name  has 
l)een  handed  down  to  us. 


TENNESSEE  159 

abandoned,  neither  was  without  influence  in  ihe 
colonization  of  Tennessee,  for  some  of  the  men  who 
built  these  forts  drifted  back  a  year  or  two  later  and 
set  up  the  first  cabins  on  t  he  Holston.  These  earliest 
settlements,  thin  and  scattered,  did  not  survive; 
but  in  1768  the  same  settlers  or  others  of  their  kind 
—  discharged  militiamen  from  Back  Country  regi- 
ments —  once  more  made  homes  on  the  Holston. 
They  were  joined  by  a  few  families  from  near 
the  present  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  who  had  de- 
spaired of  seeing  justice  done  to  the  tenants  on  the 
mismanaged  estates  of  Lord  Granville.    About  the 
same  time  there  was  erected  the  first  cabin  on 
the  Watauga  River,  as  is  generally  believed,  by  a 
man  of  the  name  of  William  Bean  (or  Been),  hunter 
and  frontier  soldier  from  Pittsylvania  County,  Vir- 
ginia.   This  man,  who  had  hunted  on  the  Watauga 
with  Daniel  Boone  in  1760,  chose  as  the  site  of  his 
dwelling  the  place  of  the  old  hunting  camp  near 
the  mouth  of  Boone's  Creek.    He  soon  began  to 
have  neighbors. 

Meanwhile  the  Regulation  Movement  stirred  the 
Back  Country  of  both  the  Carolinas.  In  1768, 
the  year  in  which  William  Bean  built  his  cabin 
on  ll     '.ank  of  the  Watauga,  five  hundred  armed 


•J 


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11! 


i; 


160  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Regulators  in  North  Carolina,  aroused  by  irregu- 
larities in  the  conduct  of  public  office,  gathered 
to  assert  their  displeasure,  but  dispersed  peacea- 
bly on  receipt  of  word  from  Governor  Tryon  that  he 
had  ordered  +he  prosecution  of  any  officer  found 
guilty  of  extortion.  Edmund  Fanning,  the  most 
haled  of  Lord  Granville's  agents,  though  convicted, 
escaped  punishment.  Enraged  at  this  miscarriage 
of  justice,  the  Regulators  began  a  system  of  ter- 
rorization  by  taking  possession  of  the  court,  pre- 
sided over  by  Richard  Henderson.  The  judge 
himself  was  obliged  to  slip  out  by  a  back  way  to 
avoid  personal  injury.  The  Regulators  burned  his 
house  and  stable.  They  meted  out  mob  treatment 
liV  wise  to  William  Hooper,  later  one  of  the  signers 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Two  elements,  with  antithetical  aims,  had  been 
at  work  in  the  Regulation;  and  the  unfortunate 
failure  of  justice  in  the  case  of  Fanning  had  given 
the  corrupt  element  its  opportunity  to  seize  con- 
trol. In  the  petitions  addressed  to  Governor 
Tryon  by  the  leaders  of  the  movement  in  its  earlier 
stages  the  aims  of  liberty-loving  thinkers  are  trace- 
able. It  is  worthy  of  note  that  they  included  in  their 
demands  articles  which  are  now  constitutional. 
They  desired  that  "suffrage  be  given  by  ticket  and 


TENNESSEE  lei 

ballot";  that  the  mode  of  taxation  be  altered,  and 
each  person  be  taxed  in  proportion  to  the  profits 
arising  from  his  estate;  that  judges  and  clerks  be 
given  salaries  instead  of  perquisites  and  fees.   They 
likewise  petitioned  for  repeal  of  the  act  prohibit- 
ing dissenting  ministers  from  celebrating  the  rites 
of  matrimony.    The  establishment  of  these  re- 
forms, the  petitioners  of  the  Regulation  concluded, 
would  "conciliate"  their  minds  to  "every  just 
measure  of  government,  and  would  make  the  laws 
what  the  Constitution  ever  designed  they  should 
be,  their  protection  and  not  their  bane."    Herein 
clearly  enough  we  can  discern  the  thought  and  the 
phraseology  of  the  Ulster  Presbyterians. 

But  a  change  took  place  in  both  leaders  and 
methods.  During  the  Regulators'  career  of  violence 
they  were  under  the  sway  of  an  agitator  named 
Hermon  Husband.  This  demagogue  was  reported 
to  have  been  expelled  from  the  Quaker  Society  for 
cause;  it  is  on  record  that  he  was  expelled  from  the 
North  Carolina  Assembly  because  a  vicious  anony- 
mous letter  was  traced  to  him.  He  deserted  his 
dupes  just  before  the  shots  cracked  at  Alamance 
Creek  and  fled  from  the  colony.  He  was  after- 
wards apprehendf  Pennsylvania  for  complicity 
in  the  Whisky  Insurrection. 


:| 


ill 


I 


'I 


162  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Four  of  the  leading  Presbyterian  ministers  of  the 
Back  Country  issued  a  letter  in  eondeninalion  of 
the  Regulators.    One  of  these  ministers  was  the 
'  mous  David  Caldwell,  son-in-law  of  the  Rever- 
end Alexander  Craighead,  and  a  man  who  knew 
the  diflFerence  between  liberty  and  license  and  who 
proved  himself  the  bravest  of  patriots  in  the  War 
of  Independence.    The  records  of  the  time  contain 
sworn  testimony  against  the  Regulators  by  Waight- 
still  Avery,  a  i,igner  of  the  Mecklenburg  Resolves, 
who  later  presided  '  onorably  over  courts  in  the 
western  circuit  of  Tennessee;  and  there  is  evidence 
indicating  Jacobite  and  French  intrigue.  That  Gov- 
ernor Tryon  recognized  a  hidden  hand  at  work  seems 
clearly  revealed  in  his  proclamation  addressed  to 
those  "whose  understandings  have  been  run  away 
with  and  whose  passions  have  been  led  in  captivity 
by  some  evil  designing  men  who,  actuated  by  cow- 
ardice and  a  sense  of  that  Publick  Justice  which  is 
due  to  their  Crimes,  have  obscured  themselves 
from  Publick  view. "    What  the  Assembly  thought 
of  the  Regulators  was  expressed  in  1770  in  a  drastic 
bill  which  so  shocked  the  authorities  in  England 
that  instructions  were  sent  forbidding  any  Gover- 
nor to  appro  /e  such  a  bill  in  future,  declaring  it 
"a  disgrace  to  th'^  British  Statute  Books." 


PS4--         .        »    J, 


TENNESSEE  m^i 

On  May  16,  1771,  some  two  tbousand  Jlegula- 
tors  were  precipitated  hy  Hu.sband  into  the  Battle 
of  Alamance,  which  took  place  in  a  district  settled 
largely  by  a  rough  and  ignorant  type  of  Germans, 
many  of  whom  Husband  had  lured  to  swell  his 
mob.     Opposed  to  him  were  eleven  hundred  of 
Governor  Tryon's  troops,  officered  by  such  patri- 
ots  as  Griffith  Rutherford,  Hugh  Waddejl,  and 
Francis  Nash.    During  an  hour's  engagement  about 
twenty  Regulators  were  killed,  while  the  Gover- 
nor's troops  had  nine  killed  and  sixty-one  wounded. 
Six  of  the  leaders  were  hanged.    The  rest  took  the 
oath  of  allegiance  which  Tryon  administered. 

It  has  been  said  about  the  Regulators  that  they 
were  not  cast  down  by  their  defeat  at  Alamance 
but  "like  the  mammoth,  they  shook  the  bolt  from 
their  brow  and  crossed  the  mountains,"  but  such 
flowery  phrases  do  not  seem  to  have  been  inspired 
by  facts.    Nor  do  the  records  show  that  "fifteen 
hundred  Regulators"  arrived  at  Watauga  in  1771, 
as  has  also  been  stated.    Nor  are  the  names  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Regulation  to  be  found  in  the  list  of 
signatures  affixed  to  the  one  "state  paper"  of  Wa- 
tauga which  was  preserved  and  written  into  his- 
toric annals.    Nor  yet  do  those  names  appear  on 
the  ros'  er  of  the  Watauga  and  Holston  men  who. 


i 


I 


t 


h 


Ml 


164  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

in  1774,  fought  with  Shelby  under  Andrew  Lewis 
in  the  Battle  of  Point  Pleasant.  The  Boones  and 
the  Bryans,  the  Robertsons,  the  Seviers,  the  Shel- 
bys, the  men  who  opened  up  the  West  and  shaped 
the  destiny  of  its  inhabitants,  were  genuine  free- 
men, with  a  sense  of  law  and  order  as  inseparable 
from  liberty.  They  would  follow  a  Washington  but 
not  a  Hermon  Husband. 

James  Hunter,  whose  signature  leads  on  all  Regu- 
lation manifestoes  just  prior  to  the  Battle  of  Ala- 
mance, was  a  sycophant  of  Husband,  to  whom  he 
addressed  fulsome  letters;  and  in  the  real  battle  for 
democracy  —  the  War  of  Independence  —  he  was 
a  Tory.  The  Colonial  Records  show  that  those 
who,  "like  the  mammoth,"  shook  from  them  the 
ethical  restraints  which  make  man  superior  to  the 
giant  beast,  and  who  later  bolted  into  the  moun- 
Ibins,  contributed  chiefly  the  lawlessness  that  har- 
assed the  new  settlements.  They  were  the  banditti 
and,  in  1776,  the  Tories  of  the  western  hills;  they 
pillaged  the  homes  of  the  men  who  were  fighting 
for  the  democratic  ideal. 


It  was  not  the  Regulation  Movement  which 
turned  westward  the  makers  of  the  Old  Southwest, 
but  the  free  and  enterprising  spirit  of  the  age. 


TENNESSEK  105 

It  was  emphatically  an  age  of  doers;  and  if  rocn 
who  felt  the  constructive  urge  in  them  might  not 
lay  hold  on  conditions  where  they  were  and  re- 
shape them,  then  they  must  go  forward  seeking 
that  environment  which  would  give  their  genius 
its  opportunity. 

Of  such  adventurous  spirits  was  Janies  Robertson, 
a  Virginian  born  of  Ulster  Scot  parentage,  and  a  resi- 
dent of  (the  present)  Wake  County,  North  Caro- 
lina, since  his  boyhood.    Robertson  was  twenty- 
eight  years  old  when,  in  1770,  he  rode  over  the  hills 
to  Watauga.    We  can   imagine  him   as  he  vr&r> 
then,  for  the  portrait  taken  much  later  in  life  shows 
the  type  of  face  th'>t  does  not  change.    It  is  a 
high  type  combining  the  best  qualities  of  his  race. 
Intelligence,  strength  of  purpose,  fortitude,  and 
moral  power  are  there;  they  impress  us  at  the  first 
glance.     At  twenty-eight  he  must  have  been  a 
serious  young  i>         '-^tlo  given  to  laughter;  in- 
deed, spontanei  haps  the  only  good  trait 
wemissinstudj   >          ^ce.   He  was  a  thinker  who 
had  not  yet  founa  nis  purpose  —  a  thinker  in  leash, 
for  at  this  time  James  Robertson  could  neither 
read  nor  write. 

At  Watauga,  Robertson  lived  for  a  while  in  the 
cabm  of  a  man  named  Honeycut.    He  chose  land 


166   PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

for  himself  and,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of 
the  time,  sealed  his  right  to  it  by  planting  corn. 
He  remained  to  harvest  his  first  crop  and  then  set 
off  to  gather  his  family  und  some  of  his  friends  to- 
gether and  escort  them  to  the  new  country.  But 
on  the  way  he  missed  the  trail  and  wandered  for 
a  fortnight  in  the  mountains.  The  lieavy  rains 
ruined  his  powder  so  that  he  could  not  hunt;  for 
food  he  had  only  berries  and  nuts.  At  one  place, 
where  steep  bluffs  opposed  him,  he  was  obliged  tj 
abandon  his  horse  and  scale  the  mountain  side  on 
foot.  He  was  in  extremity  when  he  chanced  upon 
two  huntsmen  who  gave  him  food  and  set  him  on 
the  trail.  If  this  experience  proves  his  lack  of  the 
hunter's  instinct  and  the  woodsman's  resourceful- 
ness which  Boone  possessed,  it  proves  also  his  special 
qualities  of  perseverance  and  endurance  which  were 
to  reach  their  zenith  in  his  successful  struggle  to  colo- 
nize and  hold  western  Tennessee.  He  returned  to 
Watauga  in  the  following  spring  (1771)  with  his 
family  and  a  small  group  of  colonists.  Robert- 
son's wife  was  an  educated  woman  and  under  her 
instruction  he  now  began  to  study. 

Next  year  a  young  Virginian  from  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley  rode  on  dov/n  Holston  Valley  on  a  hunt- 
ing and  exploring  trip  and  loitered  at  Watauga. 


TKNNESSKK  1,17 

Here  he  found  not  only  u  new  settlement  t,iit  on  in- 
dependent  government  in  the  making:  and  forth- 
with he  deteiniined  to  have  a  part  in  both.    This 
young  Virginian  had  already  shown  the  indina- 
tion  of  a  political  colonist,  for  in  the  SI  -nandoah 
Valley  he  had.  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  laid  out  the 
town  of  New  Market  (which  exists  to  this  <lay) 
and  had  dinvtetl  its  municipal  affairs  and  invited 
and  fostered  its  clergy.    This  young  Virginian  - 
bom  on  September  Hi,  1745.  and  so  in  177«  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age  -  wa.*  John  Sevier,  that  John 
Sevier  whose  monument  now  towers  from  its  .site 
in  Knox  ville  to  testify  of  both  the  wild  and  the  great 
deeds  of  old  Tennessee's  beloved  knight.  Like  Rob- 
ertson, Sevier  hastened  home  and  removed  hiswhole 
family,  including  his  wife  and  <hildren.  his  parents 
and  his  brothers  and  .sisters,  to  tuis  new  haven  of 
freedom  at  Watauga. 

The  friend.ship  formed  between  Ilobcrtson  and 
Sevie,  in  these  first  years  of  their  work  together 
was  never  broken,  yet  two  m<  jpiwsile  types 
could  hardly  have  been  brought  t .^ether.  Robert- 
son was  a  man  of  humble  origin,  unlettered,  not  a 
dour  Scot  but  a  solemn  one.  Sevier  was  cavalier  as 
well  as  frontiersman.  On  his  father's  side  he  was 
of  the  patrician  family  of  Xavier  in  France.    His 


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wUt  rw 

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168  nONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
progenitors,  having  become  Huguenots,  had  taken 
refuge  in  England,  where  the  name  Xuvier  was 
fipally  changed  to  Sevier.  John  Sevier's  mother 
wa«  an  Enjisishwoman.  Some  years  before  his  birth 
his  parenti  had  emigrat«'d  to  the  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley. Thus  it  happ(>neU  that  John  Sevier,  who 
mingled  good  English  blood  with  the  blue  blood  of 
old  France,  was  born  an  American  and  grew  up  a 
frontier  hunter  and  soldier.  He  stood  about  five 
feet  nine  from  his  moccasins  to  his  <ro^\n  of  light 
brown  hair.  He  was  well-proportioned  and  as 
graceful  of  body  as  he  was  hard-musck>d  and  swift. 
His  chin  was  firm,  his  nose  of  a  Roman  cast,  his 
mouth  well-shaped,  its  slightly  full  lips  slanting  in 
a  smile  that  would  not  be  repressed.  Under  the  high, 
finely  modeled  brow,  small  keen  dark  blue  eyes 
sparkled  with  health,  with  intelligence,  and  with 
the  man's  joy  in  life. 

John  Sevier  indeed  cannot  be  listet*  as  a  type: 
he  was  individual.  There  is  no  other  character 
like  him  in  border  annals.  He  was  cavalier  and 
prince  in  his  leadership  of  men;  he  had  their  hom- 
age. Yet  he  knew  how  to  be  comrade  and  brother 
to  the  lowliest.  He  won  and  held  the  confidence 
and  friendship  of  the  .serious-mind'" "  vobertson  no 
less  than  the  idolatry  of  the  wildest  spirits  on  the 


it 


TENNESSEE  leQ 

frontitr  throughout  tho  forty-three  year*  of  the 
spectacular  career  whch  began  for  him  on  the  day 
he  bi-ought  his  tribe  to  Watauga.    In  his  time  he 
wore  the  governor's  purple;  and  a  portrait  painted 
of  him  shows  how  well  this  descendant  of  the  noble 
Xavicrs  could  fit  himself  to  the  dignity  and  formal 
habiliments  of  staf  e.    Yet  in  the  fringed  deerskin  of 
frontier  garb,  he  was  fleeter  on  the  warpath  than  the 
Indians  who  fled  before  him;  and  he  could  outride 
and  outshoot  —  and,  it  is  said,  outswear—  the  best 
and  the  worst  of  the  men  who  follow  I    him.    Per- 
haps the  lurking  smile  on  John  Sevier's  face  was 
a  flicker  of  mirth  that  there  should  be  found  any 
man,  red  or  white,  with  temerity  enough  to  try 
conclusions  with  him.   None  ever  did,  successfully. 
The  historians  of  Tennessee  sUte  that  the  Wa- 
taugans  formed  their  government  in  1772  and  that 
Sevier  was  one  of  its  five  commissioners.    Yet,  as 
Sevier  did  not  settle  in  Tennessee  before  1773,  if  is 
possible  that  tue  Watauga  Association  was  not 
formed  until  then.    Unhappily  the  written  con- 
stitution  of  the    little   commonwealth    was    i.o» 
preserved;  but  it  is  known  that,  following  the  Ul- 
sterman's  ideal,  Inanhood  suffrage  and  religious 
independence   were  two  of  its  provisions.    The 
commissioners  enlisted  a  militia  and  they  recorded 


1. 


■•V 


I 


170  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

deeds  for  land,  issued  marriage  licenses,  and  tried 
offenders  against  the  law.  They  believed  them- 
selves to  be  within  the  boundaries  of  Virginia  and 
therefore  adopted  the  laws  of  that  State  for  their 
guidance.  They  had  numerous  offenders  to  deal 
with,  for  men  fleeing  from  debt  or  from  the  con- 
sequence of  crime  sought  the  new  settlements 
just  across  the  mountains  as  a  safe  and  adjacent 
harbor.  The  attempt  of  these  men  to  pursue  their 
lawlessness  in  Watauga  was  one  reason  why  the 
Wataugans  organized  a  government. 

When  the  line  was  run  between  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina  beyond  the  mountains,  Watauga 
was  discovered  to  be  south  of  Virginia's  limits  and 
hence  on  Indian  lands.  This  was  in  conflict  with 
the  King's  Proclamation,  and  Alexander  Cameron, 
British  agent  to  the  Cherokees,  accordingly  ordered 
the  encroaching  settlers  to  depart.  The  Indians, 
however,  desired  them  to  remain.  But  s...^e  it  was 
illegal  to  purchase  Indian  lands,  Robertson  nego- 
tiated a  lease  for  ten  years.  In  1775,  when  Hen- 
derson made  his  purchase  from  the  Cherokees,  at 
Sycamore  Shoals  on  the  Watauga,  Robertson  and 
Sevier,  who  were  present  at  the  sale  with  other 
Watauga  commissioners,  followed  Henderson's  ex- 
ample and  bought  outright  the  lands  they  desired 


lii 


TENNESSEE  171 

to  include  in  Watauga's  domain.    In  1776  they  pe- 
titioned North  Carolina  for  "  annexation. "  As  they 
were  already  within  North  Carolina's  bounds,  it 
was  recognition  rather  than  annexation  which  thcA- 
sought.    This  i)etition,  which  is  the  only  Wataugan 
document  to  survive,  is  undated  but  marked  as  re- 
ceived in  August,  1776.    It  is  in  Sevier's  handwrit- 
ing and  its  style  suggests  that  it  w  as  composed  by 
him,  for  in  its  manner  of  expression  it  has  much  in 
common  with  many  later  papers  from  h  is  pen .  That 
Wataugans  were  a  law-loving  community  and  had 
formed  their  government  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing law  respected  is  reiterated  throughout  the  docu- 
ment.   As  showing  the  quality  of  these  first  western 
state  makers,  two  paragraphs  are  quoted: 

Finding  ourselves  on  the  frontiers,  and  being  apprehen- 
sive that  for  want  of  proper  legislature  we  might  l)ecouie  u 
shelter  for  such  as  endeavored  to  defraud  their  creditors; 
considering  also  the  necessity  of  recording  deeds,  wills, 
and  doing  other  public  business;  we,  by  consent  of  the 
people,  formed  a  court  for  the  purposes  almve  men- 
tioned, taking,  by  desire  of  our  constituents,  the  Virginia 
laws  for  our  guide,  so  near  as  the  situation  of  affairs 
would  permit.  This  was  intended  for  ourselves,  and 
was  done  by  consent  of  erery  individual. 

The  petition  goes  on  to  state  that,  among  their 
measures  for  upholding  law,  the  Wataugans  had 


i 


II 


SI 

I*    'J 
III 

N 


» I 


p-f 


■  ^ 


172  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUiHWEST 
enlisted  "a  company  of  fine  riflemen  "  and  put  them 
under  command  of  "Captain  James  Robertson. " 

We  .  .  .  thought  proper  lo  station  them  on  our  fron- 
tiers m  defense  of  the  common  cause,  at  the  expense  and 
risque  of  our  own  private  fortunes,  till  farther  public 
orders,  which  we  flatter  ourselves  will  give  no  oflfense. 
.  .  .  We  pray  your  mature  and  deliberate  consideration 
in  our  behalf,  that  you  may  annex  us  to  your  Province 
(whether  as  county,  district,  or  other  division)  in  such 
manner  as  may  enable  us  to  share  in  the  glorious  cause 
of  Liberty :  enforce  our  laws  under  authority  and  in  eveiy 
respect  become  the  best  members  of  society ;  and  for  our- 
selves and  our  constituents  we  hope  we  may  venture  to 
assure  you  that  we  shall  adhere  strictly  to  your  deterrai- 
nations,  and  that  nothing  wiU  be  lacking  or  anything 
neglected  that  may  add  weight  (in  the  civil  or  militaiy 
establishments)  to  the  glorious  cause  in  which  we  are 
now  struggling,  or  contribute  to  the  welfare  of  our  own 
or  ages  yet  to  come. 

One  hundred  and  thirteen  names  are  signed  to 
the  document.  In  the  following  year  (1777)  North 
Carolina  erected  her  overhill  territory  into  Wash- 
ington County.  The  Governor  appointed  justices 
of  the  peace  and  militia  officers  who  in  the  follow- 
ing year  organized  the  new  county  and  its  courts. 
And  so  Watauga's  independent  government,  be- 
gun in  the  spirit  of  true  liberty,  came  as  lawfully 
to  its  end. 


TENNESSEE  173 

But  for  nearly  three  years  before  their  political 
status  was  thus  determined,  the  Wataugans  were 
sharing  "in  the  glorious  cause  of  Liberty"  by  de- 
fending their  settlements  against  Indian  attacks. 
While  the  majority  of  the  young  Cherokee  warriors 
were  among  their  enemies,  their  chief  battles  were 
fought  with  those  from  the  Chickamaugan  towns 
on  the  Tennessee  River,  under  the  leadership  of 
Dragging  Canoe.    The  Chickamaugans  embraced 
the  more  vicious  and  bloodthirsty  Cherokees,  with 
a  mixture  of  Creeks  and  bad  whites,  who,  driven 
from  every  law-abiding  community,  had  cast  in 
their  lot  with  this  tribe.     The  exact  number  of 
white  thieves  and  murderers  who  had  found  harbor 
m  the  Indian  towns  during  a  score  or  more  of  years 
is  not  known;  but  the  letters  of  the  Indian  agents, 
preserved  in  the  records,  would  indicate  that  there 
were  a  good  many  of  them.    They  were  fit  allies 
for  Dragging  Canoe;  their  hatred  of  those  from 
whom  their  own  degeneracy  had  separated  them 
was  not  less  than  his. 

In  July,  1776,  John  Sevier  wrote  to  the  Virginia 
Committee  as  follows: 

Dear  Gentlemen:    Isaac  Thomas.  William  Falling, 

Jaret  Williams  and  one  more  have  this  moment  come 

n  by  making  their  escape  from  the  Indians  and  say  six 


I 


t'  i... 


174   PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

hundred  Indians  and  whites  were  to  start  for  this  fort 
and  intend  to  drive  the  country  up  to  New  River  before 
they  return. 

Thus  was  heralded  the  beginning  of  a  savage  war- 
fare which  kept  the  borderers  engaged  for  years. 
It  has  been  a  tradition  of  the  chroniclers  that 
Isaac  Thomas  received  a  timely  warning  from 
Nancy  Ward,  a  half-caste  Cherokee  prophetess  who 
often  showed  her  good  will  towards  the  whites; 
and  that  the  Indians  were  roused  to  battle  by  Alex- 
ander Cameron  and  John  Stuart,  the  British  agents 
or  superintendents  among  the  overhill    tribes. 
There  was  a  letter  bearing  Cameron's  name  stating 
that  fifteen  hundred  savages  from  the  Cherokee 
and  Creek  nations  were  to  pin  with  British  troops 
landed  at  Peusacola  in  an  expedition  against  the 
southern  frontier  colonies.    This  letter  was  brought 
to  Watauga  at  dead  of  night  by  a  masked  man  who 
slipped  it  through  a  window  and  rode  away.    Ap- 
parently John  Sevier  did  not  belie\-e  the  military 
information  contained  in  the  mysterious  missive, 
for  he  communicated  nothiiig  of  it  to  the  Virginia 
Committee.    In  recent  years  the  facts  have  come 
to  light.    This  mysterious  letter  and  others  of  a 
similar  tenor  bearing  forged  signatures  are  cited 
in  a  report  by  the  British  Agent,  John  Stuart,  to 


TENNESSEE  175 

his  Government.  It  appears  that  such  inflamma- 
tory missives  had  been  industriously  scattered 
through  the  back  settlements  of  both  Carolinas. 
There  are  also  letters  from  Stuart  to  Lord  Dart- 
mouth, dated  a  year  earlier,  urging  that  something 
be  done  immediately  to  counteract  rumors  set 
afloat  that  the  British  were  endeavoring  to  insti- 
gate both  the  Indians  and  the  negroes  to  attack 
the  Americans. 

Now  it  is,  of  course,  an  established  fact  that  both 
the  British  and  the  American  a.mies  used  Indians 
in  the  War  of  Independence,  even  as  both  together 
had  used  them  against  the  French  and  the  Span- 
ish and  their  allied  Indians.    It  was  inevitable 
that  the  Indians  should  participate  in  any  severe 
conflict  between  the  whites.    They  w  le  a  numer- 
ous and  a  warlike  people  and,  from  their  point  of 
view,  they  had  more  at  stake  than  the  alien  whites 
who  were  contesting  for  control  of  the  red  man's 
continent.    Both  British  and  Americans  have  been 
blamed  for  "half-hearted  attempts  to  keep  the  In- 
dians neutral. "    The  truth  is  that  each  side  strove 
to  enlist  the  Indians  —  to  be  used,  if  needed  later, 
as  warriors.    Massacre  was  no  part  of  this  policy, 
though  it  may  have  been  countenanced  by  indi- 
vidual oflScers  in  both  camps.    But  it  is  obvious 


n 


I 


^'. 


I1 


1.'^ 


i 

•  1 


K 


\ 


176  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
that,  once  the  Indians  took  the  warpath,  they  were 
to  be  restrained  by  no  power  and,  no  matter  under 
whose  nominal  command,  they  would  carry  on 
warfare  by  their  own  methods. ' 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  case  elsewhere,  the 
attacks  on  the  Watauga  and  Ilolston  settlements 

•  "There  is  liitle  doubt  that  either  «de,  British  or  Americans,  stood 
ready  to  enlist  the  Indians.  Already  before  Boston  the  Americans 
had  }ud  the  help  of  the  Stockbridge  tribe.  Washington  tound  the 
service  committed  to  the  practise  when  he  arrived  at  Cambridge  early 
fn  July.  Dunmore  had  taken  the  initiative  in  securing  such  allies,  at 
least  in  purpose;  but  the  insurgent  Virginians  had  had  of  late  more 
direct  contact  with  the  tribes  and  were  now  striving  to  secure  them 
but  with  little  success. "  The  Wetttoard  Movement,  by  Justin  Winsor, 
p.  87. 

General  Ethan  .\llen  of  Vermont,  as  his  letters  show,  sent  emissaries 
into  Canada  in  an  endeavor  to  enlist  the  French  Canadians  and  the 
Canadian  Indians  against  the  British  in  Canada.  See  American  Ar- 
ehirci.  Fourth  Series,  vol.  ii,  p.  714.  The  British  General  Gage  wrote 
to  Lord  Dartmouth  from  Boston,  June  I?,  1775:  "We  need  not  be 
tender  c'  calling  on  the  Savages  as  the  rebels  have  shown  us  the 
example,  by  bringing  as  many  Indians  down  against  us  as  they  could 
collect."     American  Archicea,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  ii,  p.  967. 

In  a  letter  to  Lord  Germain,  dated  August  «3,  1770,  John  Stuart 
wrote:  "Although  Mr.  Cameron  was  in  constant  danger  of  assassina- 
tion and  the  Indians  were  threatened  with  invasion  should  they  dare 
to  protect  him,  yet  he  still  found  xneans  to  prevent  their  falling  on  the 
settlement. "  See  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vol.  x,  pp.  608 
and  76S.  Proof  that  the  British  agents  had  succeeded  in  keeping  the 
Cherokee  neutral  till  the  summer  o'  1776  is  found  in  the  instructions, 
dated  the  7th  of  July,  to  Major  Wiast-n  from  President  Rutledge  of 
South  Carolina,  regarding  the  Cherokees,  that  they  must  be  forced  to 
give  up  the  British  agents  and  "innirud  of  remaining  in  a  State  of 
NeuiralHy  with  respect  to  British  Forces  they  must  take  part  with  us 
against  them. "    See  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vol.  x,  p.  65S 


TENNESSEE  177 

were  not  instigated  by  British  agents.    It  was  not 
Nancy  Ward  but  Henry  Stuart.  John  Stuart's  depu- 
ty, who  sent  Isaac  Thomas  to  warn  the  settlers. 
In  the"    efforts  to  keep  the  friendship  of  the  red 
men,  'he  British  and  the  Americans  were  providing 
them  with  powder  and  lead.    The  Indians  had  run 
short  of  ammunition  and,  since  hunting  was  their 
only  means  of  Mvelihood,  they  must  shoot  or  starve. . 
South  Carolina  sent  the  Cherokces  a  large  supply 
of  powder  and  lead  which  was  captured  en  route 
by  Tories.    About  the  same  time  Henry  Stuart 
set  out  from  Pensacola  with  another  consignment 
from  the  British.    His  report  to  Lord  Germain  of 
his  arrival  in  the  Chickamaugan  towns  and  of  what 
took  place  there  just  prior  to  the  raids  on  the  Ten- 
nessee settlements  is  one  of  the  most  illuminating 
as  well  as  one  of  the  most  dramatic  papers  in  the 
collected  records  of  that  time. ' 

Stuart's  first  act  was  secretly  to  send  out  Thomas, 
the  trader,  to  warn  the  settlers  of  their  peril,  for  a 
small  war  party  of  braves  was  even  then  conclud- 
ing the  preliminary  war  ceremonies.  The  reason 
for  this  Indian  alarm  and  projected  excursion  was 
the  fact  that  the  settlers  hid  built  one  fort  at  least 
on  the  Indian  lands.    Stuart  finally  persuaded  the 

'  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vol.  x,  pp.  763-785. 


i!' 


\l 


I\ 


1? 


■■■ 


178  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Indians  to  remain  at  peace  until  he  could  write  to 
the  settlers  stating  the  grievances  and  asking  for 
negotintions.  The  letters  were  to  be  carried  by 
Thomas  on  his  return. 

But  no  sooner  was  Thomas  on  his  way  again  with 
tlie  letters  than  there  arrived  a  deputation  of  war- 
riois  from  the  Northern  tribes  —  from  "the  Con- 
federate nations,  the  Mohawks,  Ottawas,  Nantu- 
cas,  Shawanoes  and  Delawares "  —  fourteen  men 
in  all,  who  entered  the  council  hall  of  the  Old 
Beloved  Town  of  Chota  with  their  faces  painted 
black  and  the  war  belt  carried  before  them.  They 
said  that  they  had  been  seventy  days  on  their  jour- 
ney. Everywhere  along  their  way  they  had  seen 
houses  and  forts  springing  up  like  weeds  across 
the  green  sod  of  their  hunting  lands.  Where  once 
were  great  herds  of  deer  and  buffalo,  they  had 
watched  thousands  of  men  at  arms  preparing  for 
war.  So  many  now  were  the  white  warriors  and 
their  women  and  children  that  the  red  men  had 
been  obliged  to  travel  a  great  way  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Ohio  and  to  make  a  detour  of  nearly  three 
hundred  miles  to  avoid  being  seen.  Even  on  this 
outlying  route  they  had  crossed  the  fresh  tracks  of 
a  great  body  of  people  with  horses  and  cattle  going 
still  further  towards  the  setting  sun.    But  their 


TENNESSEE  179 

cries  were  not  to  be  in  vain;  for  "their  fathers,  the 
French"  had  heard  them  and  had  promised  to  aid 
them  if  they  would  now  strike  as  one  for  their  lands. 
After  this  preamble  the  deputy  of  the  Mohawks 
rose.    He  said  that  some  American  people  had  made 
war  on  one  of  their  towns  and  had  seized  the  son 
of  their  Great  Beloved  Man,  Sir  William  Johnson, 
imprisoned  him,  and  put  him  to  a  cruel  death; 
this  crime  demanded  a  great  vengeance  and  they 
would  not  cease  until  they  had  taken  it.    One  after 
another  the  fourteen  delegates  rose  and  made  their 
"talks"  and  presented  their  wampum  strings  to 
Dragging  Canoe.    The  last  to  speak  was  a  chief 
of  the  Shawanoes.     He  also  declared  that  "their 
fathers,  the  French,"  who  had  been  so  long  dead, 
were  "alive  again,"  that  they  had  supplied  them 
plentifully  with  arms  and  ammunition  ami  had 
promised  to  assist  them  in  driving  out  the  Amer- 
icans and  in  reclaiming  their  country.    Now  all  the 
Northern  tribes  were  joined  in  one  for  this  great 
purpose;  and  they  themselves  were  on  their  way  to 
all  the  Southern  tribes  and  had  resolved  that,  if  any 
tribe  refused  to  join,  they  would  fall  upon  and  extir- 
pate that  tribe,  after  having  overcome  the  whites. 
At  the  conclusion  of  his  oration  the  Shawanoe 
presented  the  war  belt  —  nine  feet  of  six-inch-wide 


thi 


Hi! 


180  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

purple  wampum  spattered  with  vermilion  —  to 
Dragging  Canoe,  who  held  it  extended  between  his 
two  hands,  in  silence,  and  waited.  Presently  rose 
a  headman  whose  wife  had  been  a  member  of  Sir 
William  Johnson's  household.  He  laid  his  hand  on 
the  belt  and  sung  the  war  song.  One  by  one,  then, 
chiefs  and  m  ^rriors  rose,  laid  hold  of  the  great  belt 
and  chanted  the  war  song.  Only  the  older  men, 
made  wise  by  many  defeats,  sat  still  in  their  places, 
mute  and  dejected.  "After  that  day  every  young 
fellow's  face  in  the  overhills  towns  appeared 
blackened  and  nothing  was  now  talked  of  but  war." 
Stuart  reports  that  "all  the  white  men"  in  the 
tribe  I'lso  laid  hands  on  the  belt.  Dragging  Canoe 
then  demanded  that  Cameron  and  Stuart  come 
forward  and  take  hold  of  the  war  belt  — "which 
we  refused."  Despite  the  offense  their  refusal 
gave — and  it  wr  ild  seem  a  dangerous  time  to 
give  such  offense  —  Cameron  delivered  a  "strong 
talk"  for  peace,  warning  the  Cherokees  of  what 
must  surely  be  the  end  of  the  rashness  they  con- 
templated. Stuart  informed  the  chief  that  if  the 
Indians  persisted  in  attacking  the  settlements  with- 
out waiting  for  answers  to  his  letters,  he  would 
not  remain  with  them  any  longer  or  bring  them 
u  jy  more  ammunition.    He  went  to  his  house  and 


TENNESSEE  igi 

made  ready  to  leave  on  the  following  day.    Karly 
the  next  morninK  DragginK  Canoe  appeared  at  his 
door  and  told  him  that  the  Indians  were  now  very 
angry  about  the  letters  he  had  written,  which  could 
only  have  put  the  settlers  on  their  guard;  and  that 
if  any  white  man  attempted  to  leave  the  i.uiion 
"they  had  determined  to  follow  him  hut  not  to 
bring  him  back. "    Dragging  Canoe  had  painted  his 
face  black  to  carry  this  message.     Thomas  now 
returned  with  an  answer  from  "the  West  Fin- 
castle  men,"  which  was  so  unsatisfactory  to  the 
tribe  that  war  ceremonies  were  immediately  begun. 
Stuart  and  Cameron  could  no  longer  influence  the 
Indians.    "All  that  could  now  be  done  was  to  give 
them  strict  charge  rot  to  pass  the  Boundary  Line, 
not  to  injure  any  of  the  King's  faithful  subjects,  not 
to  Kill  any  women  and  children  ";  and  to  threaten 
to  "stop  all  ammunition"  if  they  did  not  obey 
these  orders. 


I 


The  major  part  of  the  Watauga  militia  went  out 
to  meet  the  Indians  and  defeated  a  large  advance 
force  at  Long  Islan  Flats  on  the  Holston.  The 
Watauga  fort,  wher.  many  of  the  settlers  had  taken 
refuge,  contained  forty  fighting  men  under  Robert- 
son and  Sevier.    As  Indians  usually  retreated  and 


i|! 


18«  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

waited  for  a  whil**  after  a  defeat,  those  within  the 
fort  took  it  for  granted  that  no  immediate  attack 
was  to  be  expected;  and  the  women  went  out  at 
daybreak  into  the  fields  to  milk  the  cows.  Sud- 
denly the  war  whoop  shrilled  from  the  edge  of 
the  clearing.  Red  warriors  leaped  from  the  green 
skirting  of  the  forest.  The  women  ran  for  the  fort. 
Quickly  the  heavy  ;}ates  swung  to  and  the  dropped 
bar  secured  them.  Only  then  did  the  watchmen 
discover  that  one  woman  had  been  shut  out.  She 
was  a  your 'J  woman  nearing  her  twenties  and,  if 
legend  has  reported  her  truly,  "Bonnie  Kate  Sher- 
rill "  was  a  beauty.  Through  a  porthole  Sevier  saw 
her  running  towards  the  shut  gates,  dodging  and 
darting,  her  brown  hair  blowing  from  the  wind  of 
her  race  for  life—  and  offering  far  too  rich  a  prize 
to  the  yellifj?  fiends  who  dfished  after  her.  Sevier 
coolly  shot  the  foremost  of  her  pursuers,  then 
sprang  upou  the  wall,  caught  up  Bonnie  Kate, 
and  tossed  her  inside  to  safety.  And  legend  says 
further  that  when,  after  Sevier's  brief  widower- 
hood,  she  became  his  wife,  four  years  later,  Bonnie 
Kate  wa:t  wont  to  say  that  she  would  be  willing 
to  run  another  such  race  any  day  to  have  another 
such  introduction  I 

There  were  no  casualties  within  the  fort  and, 


TENNESSEE  igj 

after  three  hours,  the  foe  withdrew.  leaviiiK  ni'verul 
of  their  '"irrioM  slain. 

In  the  excursions  aguinnt   the  Indians   which 
followed   this  opening  of  hostihties  Sevier  won 
his  first  fame  as  an  "Indian  fighter"  -  -  the  fame 
Inter  crystallized  in  the  phrase  "thirty-five  Matties, 
thirty.five  victories."     His  melho,]  was  to  take  a 
very  small  company  of  the  hardiest  nnfl  swift.'st 
horsemen  -  men  who  could  keep  their  seat  and 
endurance,  and  horses  that  could  keep  their  fwt 
and  their  speed,  on  any  steep  of  the  mountains  no 
matter  how  tangled  and  rough  the  going  might  be 
—  swoop  down  upon  war  camp,  or  town,  and  go 
through  it  with  rifle  and  hatchet  and  fire,  then  dash 
homeward  at  the  same  pace  before  the  enemy  had 
begun  to  consider  whether  to  follow  him  or  not. 
In  all  his  "thirty-five  battles"  it  is  said  he  lost  not 
more  than  fif'v  men. 

The  Cherokces  made  peace  in  1777.  after  about  a 
year  of  almost  continuous  warfare,  the  treaty  being 
concluded  on  their  side  by  the  old  chiefs  who  had 
never  countenanced  tho  war.  Dragging  Canoe  re- 
fused to  take  part,  but  he  was  rendered  innocuo..s 
for  the  time  being  by  the  destruction  of  several  of 
the  Chickamaugan  villages.  James  Robertson  now 
went  to  Chota  as  Indian  agent  for  North  Carolina. 


I 


I 


I 


:iv 


fj 


184  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

So  fast  was  population  growing,  owing  to  the  open- 
ing of  a  wagon  road  into  Burke  County,  Nortli  Caro- 
lina, that  Washington  County  was  divided.  John 
Sevier  became  Colonel  of  Washington  and  Isaac 
Shelby  Colonel  of  the  newly  erected  Sullivan 
County.  Jonesborough,  the  oldest  town  in  Ten- 
nessee, was  laid  out  as  the  county  seat  of  Washing- 
ton; and  in  the  same  year  (1778)  Sevier  moved  to 
t  he  bank  of  the  Nolichucky  River,  so-called  after  the 
Indian  nameof  this  dashing  sparklingstream,  mean- 
ing rapid  or  precipitous.  Thus  the  nickname  given 
John  Sevier  by  his  devotees  had  a  dual  application. 
He  was  well  called  Nolichucky  Jack. 

When  Virginia  annulled  Richard  Henderson's  im- 
mense purchase  but  allowed  him  a  large  tract  on 
the  Cumberland,  she  by  no  means  discouraged  that 
intrepid  pioneer.  Henderson 's  tenure  of  Kentucky 
h-d  been  brief,  but  not  unprofitable  in  experience. 
He  had  learned  that  colonies  must  be  treated  with 
less  commercial  pressure  and  with  more  regard 
to  individual  liberty,  if  they  were  to  be  held  loyal 
either  to  a  King  beyond  the  water  or  to  an  un- 
crowned leader  nearer  at  hand.  He  had  been  mak- 
ing his  plans  for  colonization  of  that  portion  of 
the  Transylvania  purchase  whicV   iay  within  the 


JOHN  SEVimt 

MhiHituiip  attribiitod  to  Charles  Wilwn  Peak.     PhotoKraph  in  the 
coflaotioiM  of  Arcbibdd  Hendvson. 


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TENNESSEE  18.5 

bounds  of  North  Carolina  along  the  Cumberland 
and  choosing  his  men  to  lay  the  foundations  of  his 
projected  settlement  in  what  was  then  a  wholly  un- 
inhabited country;  and  he  had  decided  on  generous 
terms,  such  as  ten  dollars  a  thousand  acres  for  land, 
the  certificate  of  purchase  to  entitle  the  holder 
to  further  proceedings  in  the  land  oflSce  without 
extra  fees. 

To  head  an  enterprise  of  such  danger  and  hard- 
ship Henderson  required  a  man  of  more  than 
mere  courage;  a  man  of  resource,  of  stability,  of 
proven  powers,  one  whom  other  men  would  follow 
and  obey  with  confidence.  So  it  was  that  James 
Robertson  was  chosen  to  lead  the  first  white  settlers 
into  middle  Tennessee.  He  set  out  in  February, 
1779,  accompanied  by  his  brother,  Mark  Robert- 
son, several  other  white  men,  and  a  negro,  to  select 
a  site  for  .settlement  ami  to  plant  corn.  Meanwhile 
another  small  party  led  by  Gaspar  Mansker  had 
arrived.  As  the  boundary  line  between  V^irginia 
and  North  Carolina  had  not  been  run  to  this  point, 
Robert.son  believed  that  the  site  he  had  cho.sen  la\ 
within  Virginia  and  was  in  the  disposal  of  (Jeneral 
Clark.  To  protect  the  settlers,  therefore,  he  jour- 
neyed into  the  Illinois  country  to  purchase  cabin 
rights  from  Clark,  but   there  he  was  evidently 


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186  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

convinced  that  the  site  on  the  Cumberland  would 
be  found  to  lie  within  North  Carolina.  He  returned 
to  Watauga  to  lead  a  party  of  settlers  into  the  new 
territory,  towards  which  they  set  out  in  October. 
After  crossing  the  mountain  chain  through  Cum- 
berland Gap,  the  party  followed  Boone's  road  — 
the  Warriors'  Path  —  for  some  distance  and  then 
made  their  own  trail  southwestward  through  the 
wilderness  to  the  bluffs  on  the  Cumberland,  where 
they  built  cabins  to  house  them  against  one  of  the 
coldest  winters  ever  v  tperienced  in  that  country. 
So  were  laid  the  first  foundations  of  the  present 
city  of  Nashville,  at  first  named  Nashborough  by 
Robertson. '    On  the  way,  Robertson  had  fallen  in 
with  a  party  of  men  and  families  bound  for  Ken- 
tucky and  had  persuaded  them  to  accompany  his 
little  band  to  the  Cumberland.    Robertson's  own 
wife  and  children,  as  well  as  the  families  of  his 
party,  had  been  left  to  follow  in  the  second  expe- 
dition, which  was  to  be  made  by  water  under  the 
command  of  Captain  John  Donelson. 

The  little  fleet  of  boats  containing  the  settlers, 
their  families,  and  all  their  household  goods,  was 
lo  start  from  Fort  Patrick  Henry,  near  Long  Island 

'  In  honor  of  General  Francis  Nash,  of  Xorth  Carolina,  who  was 
morUliy  wounded  at  Germantown,  1777. 


^n- 


TENNESSEE  187 

in  the  Holston  River,  to  float  down  into  the  Ten- 
nessee and  along  the  652  miles  of  that  widely  wan- 
dering stream  to  the  Ohio,  and  then  to  proceed  up 
the  Ohio  to  the  mouth  of  the  Cumberland  and  '  <> 
the  Cumberland  until  Robertson's  station  should 
appear  —  a  journey,  as  it  turned  out,  of  some  nine 
hundred  miles  through  unknown  country  and  on 
waters  at  any  rate  for  the  greater  part  never  before 
navigated  by  white  men. 

Journal  of  a  voyage,  intended  by  God's  permis- 
sion, in  the  good  boat  Adventure  is  the  title  of  the 
log  book  in  which  Captain  Donelson  entered  the 
events  of  the  four  months'  journey.    Only  a  few 
pages  endured  to  be  put  into  print:  but  those  few 
tell  a  tale  of  hazard  and  courage  that  seems  com- 
plete.    Could  a  lengthier  narrative,  even  if  en- 
riched with  literary  art  and  fancy,  bring  before  us 
more  vividly  than  do  the  simple  entries  of  Donel- 
son's  log  the  spirit  of  the  men  and  the  women  who 
won  the  West.?    If  so  little  personal  detail  is  re- 
corded of  the  pioneer  men  of  that  day  that  we  must 
deduce  what  they  were  from  what  they  did,  what 
do  we  know  of  their  unfail'  j  comrades,  the  pio- 
neer women?     Only  that  they  were  there  and  that 
they  shared  in  every  test  of  courage  and  endur- 
ance,  save  the  march  of  troops  and  the  hunt. 


H 


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188  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
Donclson's  Journal  therefore  has  a  special  value, 
because  in  its  terse  account  of  Mrs.  Jennings  and 
Mrs.  Peyton  it  depicts  unforgettably  the  quality 
of  pioneer  womanhood. ' 

December  22nd,  1779.  Took  our  departure  from  the 
fort  and  fell  down  the  river  to  the  luouth  of  RewJy 
Creek  where  we  were  stopped  by  the  fall  of  water  and 
most  excessive  hard  frost. 

Perhaps  part  of  the  Journal  was  lost,  or  perhaps 
the  "excessive  hard  frost"  of  that  severe  winter, 
when  it  is  said  even  droves  of  wild  game  perished, 
prevented  the  boats  from  going  on,  for  the  next 
entry  is  dated  the  27th  of  February.  On  this 
date  the  Adventure  and  two  other  boats  grounded 
and  lay  on  the  shoals  all  that  afternoon  and  the 
succeeding  night  "in  much  distress." 

March  2nd.  Rain  about  half  the  day.  ...  Mr. 
Henry's  boat  being  driven  on  the  point  of  an  island  by 
the  force  of  the  current  was  sunk,  the  whole  cargo  much 
damaged  and  the  crew's  lives  much  endangered,  which 
occasioned  the  whole  fleet  to  put  on  shore  and  go  to 
their  assistance.  .  .  . 

Monday  (ith.  Got  nuder  way  before  sunrise;  the  morn, 
ing  provmg  very  foggy,  many  of  the  fleet  were  much 
bogged -about    10  o'clock   lay  by  for   them;   when 

'  This  Journal  is  printed  in  Ramsey  a  AnnaU  of  Tennetsee. 


TENNESSEE  igg 

c-ollected.  procmled  down.  Camped  on  the  north  shore, 
where  Taptuin  Hiitchin«'.s  ne^ro  man  died,  bein^  much 
frr-  ♦'  1  in  Jus  feet  and  le^s.  of  whieh  he  died. 

lay,  7th.  (iot  under  way  very  earlv:  the  dav 
,  ..vmR  very  win.ly.  a  S.  S.  W.,  and  the'river  bein^ 
wi.ie  cK.ras.f,ne,J  «  hj^h  .sea,  in.sf,murh  that  .some  «,f  the 
smaller  craft.s  were  in  danger;  therefore  came  to  at  the 
iipr>ermo,st  Chieeamuuga  town,  which  wa.s  then  evacu- 
ated, where  we  lay  by  that  afternoon  and  camped  that 
niKht.  The  wife  of  Ephraim  Peyton  was  here  delivered 
of  a  ch.Id^  Mr.  Peyton  hn.s  Rone  through  by  lan.l  with 
<  aptam  Rol)ert.son. 

Wednesday  Stk  .  .  .  proceed  down  to  an   Indian  vil- 
lage which  wa.s  inhabited  .  .  .  theyinsisteilonustocome 
ashore,  called  u.s  brothers,  and  showed  other  .sign.s  of 
fnendship.  ...    And  here  we  must  regret  the  unfortu- 
nate death  of  young  Mr.  Payne,  on  board  (^aptain  Blake- 
nmre's  boat,  who  wa.s  mortally  wounded  by  reason  of 
the  boat  running  too  near  the  northern  .shore  opposite 
the  town,  where  some  of  the  enemy  lay  concealed;  and 
the  more  tragical  misfortune  of  poor  Stuart,  his  family 
and  friends,  to  the  number  of  twenty-eight  persons. 
1  his  man  had  embarked  with  us  for  the  Western  coun- 
try, but  his  family  being  diseased  with  the  small  pox, 
Jt  was  agreed  upon  between  him  and  the  company  that 
he  should  keep  at  some  distance  in  the  rear,  for  fear  of 
the  infection  spreading,  and  he  was  warned  each  night 
when  the  encampment  should  take  place  by  the  sound 
of  a  horn.    ...  the  Indians  having  now  collected  to  a 
considerable  number,  observing  his  helpless  situation 
singled  off  from  the  rest  of  the  fleet,  intercepted  him  and 
killed  and  took  prisoners  the  whole  crew  .  .  .   ;  their 
cries  were  distinctly  heard. 


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100  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
After  dencribing  u  running  fighf  with  Indians  sta- 
tioned on  the  bluffs  on  both  shores  w  here  the  river 
narrowed  to  half  its  width  and  boiled  through  a  can- 
yon, the  entry  for  the  day  concludes:  "Jennings's 
boat  is  missing." 

Friday  lOth.    This  morning  about  4  o'clock  we  were 
surprised  by  the  cries  of  "help  poor  Jennings"  at  some 
disUnce  in  the  rear.    He  had  discovered  us  by  our  fires 
and  came  up  in  the  most  wretched  condition.    He  states 
that  as  soon  as  the  Indians  discovered  his  situation  (his 
boat  had  run  on  a  rock]  they  turned  their  whol^  atten- 
tion to  him  and  kept  up  a  most  galling  fire  at  bis  boat, 
/le  ordered  his  wife,  a  son  nearly  grown,  a  young  man 
who  accompanies  them  and  his  negro  man  and  woman, 
to  throw  all  his  goods  into  the  river  to  lighten  their  boat 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  her  off;  himself  returning  their 
fire  as  well  as  he  could,  being  a  good  soldier  and  an  ex- 
cellent marksman.    But  before  they  had  accomplished 
their  object,  his  .son.  the  young  man  and  the  negro, 
jumped  out  «f  the  boat  and  left.  .  .  .    Mrs.  Jennings, 
however,  and  the  negro  woman,  succeeded  in  unloading 
the  boat,  but  chiefly  by  the  exertions  of  Mrs.  Jennings 
who  got  out  of  the  boat  and  shoved  her  off,  but  was  near 
falling  a  victim  to  her  own  intrepidity  on  account  of  the 
boat  starting  so  suddenly  as  soon  as  loosened  from  the 
rock.     Upon  examination  he  appears  to  have  made  a 
wonderful  escape  for  his  boat  is  pierced  in  numberless 
places  with  bullets.     It  is  to  be  remarked  that  Mrs. 
Peyton,  who  was  the  night  before  delivered  of  an  infant, 
which  was  unfortunately  killed  upon  the  hurry  and  con- 
fusion consequent  upon  such  a  disaster,  assi.sted  them. 


it 


TENNESSEE  loi 

being  frequently  exposed  to  wet  and  «>ld.  .  .  .  Their 
clothes  were  very  much  cut  with  buIJets,  especially 
Mrs.  Jennings's. 

Of  the  three  men  who  deserted,  while  the  women 
stood  by  under  fire,  the  negro  was  drowned  and 
Jenning.s'.s  .son  and  the  other  young  man  were 
captured  by  the  Chickamauguns.  The  latter  was 
burned  at  the  stake.  Young  Jennings  was  to  have 
.shared  the  .same  fate;  but  a  trader  in  the  village, 
learning  that  the  boy  was  known  to  John  Sevier, 
ransomed  him  by  a  large  payment  of  goods,  as  a 
return  for  an  aet  of  kindness  Sevier  had  once  done 
to  him. 

Sunday  1 2th.  .  .  .     After  running  until  about  10  o'clock 
euine  in  .sight  of  the  Mu.scle  Shoals.     Halted  on  the 
northern  shore  at  the  uppearanee  of  the  shoals,  in  order 
to  .search  for  the  .signs  Captain  Jame.-  RoJiertson  was  to 
make  for  us  at  that  place  .  .  .  that  it  was  practicable 
for  us  to  go  across  by  land  ...  we  can  find  none  — 
tunn  which  we  conclude  that  it  would  not  be  prudent 
Ir,  make  the  attempt  and  are  determined,  knowing  our- 
selves in  such  imminent  danger,  to  pursue  our  journey 
down  the  river.  .  .  .     When  we  approached  them  (the 
Shoals]  they  had  a  dreadful  appearance.  .  .  .   The  water 
being  high  niade  a  terrible  roaring,  which  could  lie  heard 
at  some  distance,  among  the  driftwood  heaped  fright- 
fully upon  the  points  of  the  island.s,  the  current  running 
in  every  po-ssihle  direction.    Here  we  did  not  know  how 
soon  wc  should  b.^  da.shed  t«j  pieces  and  all  our  troubles 


i 


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V 


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3 
I 


10«  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOLTIIWES'I' 


I 


riidcd  Ht  once.  Our  iNuitH  '  lurntty  dru^gptl  on  tlio 
lM)ttom  and  apfiearwi  <?«•  uly  in  danRcr  of  .striking. 
They  wari)od  as  much  as  in  a  ruu^h  sea.  But  by  the 
hand  of  Provident*  we  are  now  firewrved  from  this  dan- 
tfer  aliM).  I  know  not  the  length  «)f  this  wonderful  shoal ; 
it  had  l)een  representeil  to  me  to  be  twenty-five  or  thirty 
niilen.  If  so,  we  must  have  descended  very  rapidly,  as 
indeed  we  did.  for  we  passed  it  in  alraut  three  hours. 


hif,' 

iff" 


On  the  twentieth  the  little  fleet  arrived  at  the 
mouth  of  tlie  Tennessee  and  the  voyagers  landed 
on  the  bank  of  the  Ohio. 

Our  situation  here  is  truly  disagreeable.  The  river  is 
very  high  and  the  current  rapid,  our  boats  not  con- 
.structed  for  the  puri>ose  of  stemming  a  rapid  stream, 
our  provisions  exhausted,  the  crews  almost  worn  down 
with  hunger  and  fatigue,  and  know  not  what  distance 
we  have  to  go  or  what  time  it  will  take  us  to  our  place  of 
destination.  The  s<«ene  is  rendered  still  more  melan- 
choly as  several  boats  will  not  attei^pt  to  ascend  the 
rapid  current.  Some  intend  to  descend  the  Mississippi 
to  Natchez;  others  are  bound  for  the  IlUnois  —  among 
the  rest  my  son-in-'aw  and  daughter.  We  now  part, 
perhaps  to  meet  no  more,  for  I  am  determined  to 
pursue  ray  course,  happen  what  will. 
Tuesday  2lsl.  Set  out  and  on  this  day  labored  very 
hard  and  got  but  little  way.  .  .  .  Passed  the  two  fol- 
lowing days  as  the  former,  suttcring  nmcb  from  hunger 
and  fatigue. 

Friday  2!tlh.  About  three  o'clock  came  to  the  mouth  of 
a  river  which  I  thought  was  the  Cumberland.    Some  of 


TKNNI-XSKF 


IfKt 


the  company  .Maml  it  ,.miM  m.t  In-  -  it  w«,  ,0  much 
iinmlter  than  w..m  ..x,hhI...J W..  ,|..|..rn.ine.l  how- 
ever 10  nmke  the  trij.l.  ,„„hp.|  ..,,  «,„„.  ,|iH,„„.,.  „,„, 
I'HramiMHj  for  thi*  iii^ht. 

Snturday  J.'ifh.  T.Hjay  vvr  ar.-  „Uivh  ..n<-o.,rnKr,|  tho 
nvor  BrowH  wi,|er:  .  .  .  r  are  now  .onvim,.!  i,  i, 
the  I  unilierlund  .... 

Sunday  ^^Oth  .  .  f)r.HMm'.|  ,hoi,„.  |„iffalo  „„.«»;  th,„,.,h 
FKX)r  It  wa.M  palafahie.  "^ 

Friday  .U4  .  .  ,„et  with  ('„h,nol  Rirhar.1  Frender- 
sr>n.  who  I.S  runninu  the  line  Mween  Virpnia  and  North 
<  arolina.  At  this  meeting  we  were  nnu-h  rej.mvd.  He 
jtJive  us  every  information  we  wished.  an.J  fnrther  in- 
formed us  that  he  had  pur(ha.s..d  a  .juantity  of  eorn 
til  Kentu*  kv,  f.  U-  sliip|H>tJ  at  the  Falls  of  Ohio  for  the 
use  of  the  Cu.nl^rland  s.'ttlement  UV  are  m)w  with- 
out l,-,.ad  and  are  nn„,K.|Ie,|  to  hunt  the  buffalo  to 
preserve  life.  .  .  . 

Mmday  April  J>,th.  This  day  we  arrive,!  at  our  jour- 
ney s  end  at  the  Hig  Salt  Lick,  where  we  have  the  pleas- 
ore  of  findmK  Captain  Roljertson  and  his  company  It 
Ks  H  .sourer  of  f«,tisfaction  to  us  to  be  enabled  to  reston- 
to  hun  and  others  their  famihe.  an.l  friends,  who  were 
entrusted  to  our  care,  and  who.  .sometime  since.  ,H.rhaps 
despaired  of  ever  meeting  again. 

Pa.st  the  camps  of  the  Chickan.auKan.s  -  who 
were  retreating  farther  and  farther  down  the  twi.st- 
ing  flood,  setking  u  last  standing  ground  in  the 
giant  eaves  by  the  Tennessee  -  these  white  voy- 
agers had  steered  their  pirogues.  Near  Robertson 's 
station,  where  they  landed  after  having  traversed 


/^i| 


'!ii 


/' 


13 


II 


f^ 


194  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  triangle  of  the  three  jjreat  rivers  which  en- 
close the  larger  part  of  western  Tennessee,  stood  a 
crumbling  trading  house  marking  the  defeat  of  a 
Frenchman  who  had,  one  time,  sailed  in  from  the 
Ohio  to  establish  an  outpost  of  his  nation  there. 
At  a  little  distance  were  the  ruins  jf  a  rude  fort 
cast  up  by  the  Cherokees  in  the  days  when  the  re- 
doubtable Chickasaws  had  driven  them  from  the 
pleasant  shores  of  the  western  waters.     I'nder  the 
towering  forest  growth  lay  vast  burial  mounds 
and  the  sunken  foundations  of  walled  towns,  tell- 
ing of  a  departed  race  which  had  once  flashed  ifs 
rude  paddles  and  had  its  dream  of  permanence 
along  the  couises  of  these  great  waterways.    Now 
another   tribe  had  come  to  dream   that  dream 
anew.    Already   its   primitive   keels   had   traced 
the  opening  lines  of  its  history  on  the  face  of  the 
immemorial  rivers. 


CHAPTER  IX 


1 


KING  S  MOUNTAIN 

About  the  time  when  James  Robertson  went  from 
Watauga  to  fling  out  the  frontier  line  three  hun- 
dred miles  farther  westward,  the  British  took  Sa- 
vannah. In  1780  they  took  Charleston  and  Augusta, 
and  overran  Georgia.  Augusta  was  the  point  where 
the   old    trading    path  forked   north  and   west, 
and  it  was  the  key  to  the  Back  Country  and  the 
ove-'iill  domain.    In  Georgia  and  the  Back  Coun- 
try of  South  Carolina  there  were  many  Tories 
ready  to  rally  to  the  King's  standard  whenever  a 
King's  officer  should  carry  it  through  their  midst. 
A  large  number  of  these  Tories  were  Scotch,  chiefly 
from  the  Highlands.     In  fact,  as  we  have  seen, 
Scotch    blood    predominated    among    the    racial 
streams  in  the  Back  Country  from  Georgia  to  Penn- 
sylvania.    Now,  to  insure  a  triumphant  march 
northward  for  Cornwallis  and  his  royal  troops, 
these  sons  of  Scotland  must  be  gathered  together, 

195 


I  ,• 


V 


A 


H 


[Si: 


H 


!i    '  II 

I'd  - 


196   PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  loyal  encouraged  and  those  of  rebellious  tend- 
encies converted,  and  they  must  be  drilled  and 
turned  to  account.  This  task,  if  it  were  to  be  ac- 
<'o.i|)lished  successfully,  must  be  entrusted  to  an 
officer  with  positive  qualifications,  one  who  would 
command  respect,  whose  personal  address  would  at- 
tract men  and  disarm  opposition,  and  especially  one 
who  could  go  as  a  Scot  among  his  own  clan.  Corn- 
wallis  found  his  man  in  Major  Patrick  Ferguson. 

Ferguson  was  a  Highlander,  a  son  of  Lord  Pit- 
four  of  Aberdeen,  and  thirty-six  years  of  age.  He 
was  of  short  stature  for  a  Highlander  —  about  five 
feet  «Mght  —  lean  and  dark,  with  straight  black  hair. 
He  had  a  serious  unhandsome  countenance  which, 
at  casual  glance,  might  not  arrest  attention;  but 
when  he  spoke  he  became  magnetic,  by  reason  of 
the  intelligence  and  innate  force  th.'  t  gleamed  in  his 
eyes  and  the  convincing  sincerity  of  his  manner. 
He  was  admired  and  respected  by  his  brother  ofli- 
cers  and  by  the  commanders  under  whom  he  had 
served,  and  he  was  loved  by  his  men. 

He  had  seen  his  first  service  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  having  joined  the  British  army  in  Flanders 
at  the  age  of  fifteen;  and  he  had  early  distinguished 
himself  for  courage  and  coolness.  In  1768,  as  a 
captain  of  infantry,  he  quelled  an  insurrection  of 


KINGS  MOUxNTAIN  197 

the  natives  on  the  island  of  St.  Vincent  in  the 
West  Indies.  Later,  at  Woolwich,  he  took  up  the 
scientific  study  of  his  profession  of  arms.  He  not 
only  became  a  crack  shot,  but  he  invented  a  new 
type  of  rifle  which  he  could  load  at  the  breach 
without  ramrod  and  so  quickly  as  to  fire  seven 
times  in  a  minute.  Generals  and  statesmen  attend- 
ed his  exhibitions  of  shooting;  and  even  the  King 
rode  over  at  the  head  of  his  guards  to  watch  Fer- 
guson rapidly  loading  and  firing. 

In  America  under  Cornwallis,  Ferguson  had  the 
reputation  of  being  the  best  shot  in  the  army;  and 
it  was  soon  said  that,  in  his  quickness  at  loading 
and  firing,  he  excelled  the  most  expert  American 
frontiersman.  Eyewitnesses  have  left  their  testi- 
mony that,  seeing  a  bird  alight  on  a  bough  or  rail, 
he  would  drop  his  bridle  rein,  dr^- •  his  pistol,  toss 
it  in  the  air,  catch  and  aim  it  i  1,  and  shoot 

the  bird's  head  off.  He  was  givt ..  conmuind  of  a 
corps  of  picked  riflemen;  and  in  the  Battle  of  the 
Brandywine  in  177':  he  rendered  services  which 
won  acclaim  from  the  whole  army.  For  the  honor 
of  that  day's  service  to  his  King,  Ferguson  paid 
what  from  him,  with  his  passion  for  the  rifle, 
must  have  been  the  dearest  price  i^al  could  have 
been  demanded.    His  right  arm  was  shattered,  and 


n 


I  ;i 


I 


ftfi' 


198  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

for  the  remaining  three  years  of  his  short  life  it 
hung  useless  at  his  side.  Yet  he  took  up  swordplay 
and  attained  a  remarkable  degree  of  skill  as  a  left- 
handed  swordsman. 

Such  was  Ferguson,  the  soldier.  What  of  the 
man.'*  For  he  has  been  pictured  as  a  wolf  and  a 
fiend  and  a  coward  by  early  chroniclers,  who  evi- 

« 

dently  felt  that  they  were  adding  to  the  virtue  of 
those  who  fought  in  defense  of  liberty  by  repre- 
senting all  their  foes  as  personally  odious.  We 
can  read  his  quality  of  manhood  in  a  few  lines  of 
the  letter  he  sent  to  his  kinsman,  the  noted  Dr. 
Adam  Ferguson,  about  an  incident  that  occurred 
at  Chads  Ford.  As  he  was  lying  with  his  men 
in  the  woods,  in  front  of  Knyphausen's  army,  so 
he  relates,  he  saw  two  American  oflficers  ride  out. 
He  describ»..s  their  dress  minutely.  One  was  in 
hussar  uniform.  The  other  was  in  a  dark  green 
and  blue  uniform  with  a  high  cocked  hat  and  was 
mounted  on  a  bay  horse: 

I  ordered  three  good  shots  to  steal  near  to  and  fire  at 
them;  but  the  idea  disgusting  me,  I  recalled  the  order. 
The  hussar  in  retiring  made  a  circuit,  but  the  other 
passed  within  a  hundred  yards  of  us,  upon  which  I  ad- 
vanced from  the  wood  towards  him.  Upon  my  calling 
he  stopped;  but  after  looking  at  me  he  proceeded.  I 
again  drew  his  attention  and  made  signs  to  him  to  stop, 


KINGS  MOUNTAIN  199 

levelling  my  piece  at  him;  but  he  slowly  cantered  away 
As  I  was  withm  that  distance,  at  which,  in  the  quickest 
ftnng  I  could  have  lodged  half  a  .lozcn  balls  in  or  about 
him  before  he  was  out  of  my  reach.  I  had  only  to  deter- 
mine.   But  It  was  not  pleasant  to  6re  at  the  back  of  an 
unoffending  individual  who  was  acquitting  hin.^lf  very 
coolly  of  his  duty  -  so  I  let  him  alone.    The  day  after. 
I  had  been  telling  this  .story  to  .some  wounded  officers 
who  lay  in  the  same  room  with  me.  when  one  of  the  sur- 
geons who  had  been  dressing  the  wounded  relx»l  officers 
came  in  and  told  us  that  they  had  been  informing  him 
that  General  Washington  was  all  the  morning  with  the 
Jight  troops,  and  only  attended  by  a  French  officer  in 
hussar  dress,  he  him.self  dressed  and  mounted  in  ever\- 
point  as  above  described.    /  am  not  ,orry  that  I  did  not 
know  at  the  time  who  it  was. ' 

Fergu.son  had  hi.s  code  toward.s  the  foe'.s  women 
also.  On  one  occa.sion  when  he  was  assisting  in 
an  action  carried  out  by  Hessians  and  Dragoons, 
he  learned  that  some  American  women  had  been 
shamefully  maltreated.    He  went  in  a  white  fury 

•  ■  Doubt  that  the  offi.-er  i„  question  wa.,  Washir^ton  wa.s  expressed 
by  Jajnc  Fenimore  Cooper.  Cooper  stated  that  Major  I)e  1^"^ 
hu  father-n-law.  wa.  b.nding  Ferguson's  arn,  at  the  time  when  iL 
two  officer,  were  seen  and  Ferguson  recalled  the  order  to  fire,  and  that 
De  Lancey  said  he  beheved  the  officer  was  Count  Pulaski.    But.  as 

«  T'  ^'"'"'T  ^  ^''  °''°  *'^~"°'-  "'«^«'«d  hi*  piece-  at  the 
officer  h.s  arm  evidently  was  not  wounded  u..til  later  in  the  day.  The 
probabihty  .s  that  Ferguson's  version,  written  in  a  private  letter  to 

us  relative  .3  correct  as  to  the  facts,  whatever  may  be  conjectured  as 
to  the  identity  of  the  officer.    See  Dranor'.  JCV„v.  w       <•         .. 


^^ 


r 


lit 


200  PIONKERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOI'THWEST 

to  tlio  colonel  in  command,  and  demuntjcd  that  the 
men  who  had  so  disgraced  their  uniforms  instantly 
be  put  to  death. 

In  rallying  the  loyalists  of  the  Back  Country 
of  (icorgia  and  the  Carolinas,  Ferguson  was  very 
successful.  lie  was  presently  in  command  of  a 
thousand  or  more  men,  including  small  detach- 
m«*nts  of  loyalists  from  New  York  and  New  Jersv-y, 
under  American-born  officers  such  as  De  Peyster 
and  Allaire.  There  were  good  honest  men  among 
Hie  loyalists  and  there  wcie  also  rough  and  vicious 
men  out  for  spoils  —  which  was  true  as  well  of  the 
A'higs  or  Patriots  from  the  same  counties.  Among 
tlie  rough  element  were  Tory  banditti  from  the 
overmountain  region.  It  is  to  be  gathered  from 
Ferguson's  records  that  he  did  not  think  any  too 
liighly  of  some  of  his  new  recruits,  but  he  set  to 
work  with  all  energy  to  make  them  useful. 

The  American  Patriots  hastily  prepared  to  op- 
pose him.  Colonel  Charles  McDowell  of  Burke 
County,  North  Carolina,  with  a  small  force  of  mili- 
tia was  just  south  of  the  line  at  a  point  on  the 
Broad  River  when  he  heard  that  Ferguson  was 
sweeping  on  northward.  In  haste  he  sent  a  call  for 
help  across  the  mountains  to  Sevier  and  Shelby. 
Sevier  had  his  hands  full  at  Watauga,  but  he 


I 

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>•■■■■  ■ 


i3M4ir  SHELBY 


iJnT^  «J^  by  Mktthew  Harm  Jowtt.  owwd  (I»i«).  b^ 
,5S    .    *■  *^*V.  CrnHd  ]|i4>i[i.  Michigan.    PhvlogimiA  in  tlM 


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KINGS  MOUNTAIN  «01 

rli.sputched  two  liundrt'd  of  his  troops;  und  Isuju- 
Shelby,  with  u  similar  fortr  from  Sullivun  County 
croiised  the  mountuins  to  McDowell's  assislunee. 
These  "overinountuin  men"  or  "backwater  men," 
as  they  were  called  east  of  the  hills,  were  trained 
in  Sevier's  method  of  Indian  warfare  —  the  secret 
approach  through  the  dark,  the  swift  dash,  and 
the  swifter  flight.  "Fight  strong  and  run  away 
fast"  was  the  Indian  motto,  as  their  women  had 
often  been  heard  to  call  it  after  the  red  men  as  they 
ran  yelling  to  fall  on  the  whites.  The  frontiers- 
men had  adapted  the  motto  to  fit  their  case,  as 
they  had  also  made  their  own  the  Indian  tactics 
of  ambuscade  and  surprise  attacks  at  dawn.  To 
sleep,  or  ride  if  needs  must,  by  night,  and  to  tight 
by  aay  and  make  ofT,  was  to  them  a  reasonable 
soldier's  life. 

But  Ferguson  was  a  night  marauder.  The  terror 
of  his  name,  which  grew  among  the  Whigs  of  the 
Back  Country  until  the  wildest  legends  about  his 
ferocity  were  current,  was  due  chiefly  to  a  habit 
he  had  of  pouncing  on  his  foes  in  the  middle  of  the 
night  and  pulling  them  out  of  bod  to  give  tight  or 
die.  It  was  generally  both  tight  und  die.  for  these 
dark  adventures  of  his  were  particularly  success- 
ful.   Ferguson  knew  no  neutrals  or  conscientious 


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aw  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

objfctors;  uny  man  who  would  not  carry  arms  for 
the  King  was  a  traitor,  and  his  life  and  goods  were 
forfeit.  A  report  of  his  reads:  '*The  attack  being 
made  at  night,  no  quarter  could  be  given. "  Hence 
his  wolfi.sh  fame.  "Werewolf"  would  have  been  a 
fit  name  for  him  for,  though  he  whk  a  wolf  at  night, 
in  the  daylight  he  was  a  man  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
a  chivalrous  one. 

In  the  guerrilla  fighting  that  went  on  for  a  brief 
time  between  the  overmountain  men  and  various 
detachments  of  Ferguson's  f'^n-cs,  sometimes  one 
side,  sometimes  the  other,  won  the  heat.  But  the 
field  remained  open.  Neither  side  could  claim  the 
mastery.  In  a  minor  engagement  fought  at  Mus- 
grove's  Mill  on  the  Enoree,  Shelby's  command 
came  off  victor  and  was  about  to  pursue  the  enemy 
towards  Ninety-Six  when  a  messenger  from  Mc- 
Dowell galloped  madly  into  camp  with  word  of 
General  Gates's  crushing  defeat  at  Camden.  This 
was  a  warning  for  Shelby's  guerrillas  to  flee  as 
birds  to  their  mountains,  or  Ferguson  would  out 
them  off  from  the  north  and  wedge  them  in  be- 
tween his  own  force  and  the  victorious  Cornwallis. 
McDowell's  men,  also  on  the  run  for  safety,  joined 
them.  For  forty-eight  hours  without  food  or  rest 
they  rode  a  race  with  Ferguson,  who  kept  hard  on 


K1N(JS  MOUNTAIN  ios 

their  trail  until  iUvy  (li.sai)|M>ur(><l  into  \hv  nystery 
of  the  windinK  ::iountain  paths  tht-y  alonr  knew. 

Ferguson    reached    the   gap    where    they    had 
swerved  into  the  towering  hills  only  half  an  hour 
after  their  horses'  hoofs  had  poundetl  across  it. 
Here  he  turned  hack.    His  troops  were  exhausted 
from  the  all-night   ride  and,  in   any  cuh.'.  there 
were  not  enough  of  th«'ni  ti.  enable  him  to  cross  the 
mountains  and  K'ive  the  Watauga  men  battle  on 
their  own  ground  with  a  fair  promise  <     victory. 
So  keeping  east  of  the  hills  but  still  close  to  them. 
Ferguson  turned  into  Burke  County,  North  Caro- 
lina.   He  sat  him  down  in  Gilbert  Town  (present 
Lincolnton,  Lincoln  County)  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  indited  a  letter  to  the  "Back  Water 
Men, "  telling  them  that  if  they  did  not  lay  down 
their  arms  and  return  to  thi  ir  rightful  allegiance, 
he  would  come  over  their  hills  and  raze  their  settle- 
ments and  hang  their  leaders.    He  paroled  a  kins- 
man of  Shelby's,  whom  he  had  taken  prisoner  in  the 
chase,  and  sent  him  home  with  the  letter.     Then 
he  set  about  his  usual  business  of  gathering  up 
Tories  and  making  soldiers  of  them,  and  of  hunting 
down  rebels. 

One  of  the  "rebels  "  was  a  certain  Captain  Lytle. 
When  Ferguson  drew  up  at  Ly tie's  door,  Lytle  had 


li 


204  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

already  made  his  escape;  but  Mrs.  Lytle  was  there. 
She  was  a  very  handsome  woman  and  she  had 
dressed  herself  in  her  best  to  receive  Ferguson,  who 
was  reported  a  gallant  as  well  as  a  wolf.  After  a 
few  spirited  passages  between  the  lady  in  the  door- 
way and  the  officer  on  the  white  horse  before  it, 
th<'  latJer  advised  Mrs.  Lytle  to  use  her  influence 
to  bring  her  husband  back  to  his  duty.  She  be- 
came grave  then  and  answered  that  her  husband 
would  never  turn  traitor  to  his  country.  Ferguson 
frowned  at  the  word  "traitor,"  but  presently  he 
said:  "Madam,  I  admire  you  as  the  handsomest 
woman  I  have  seen  in  North  Carolina.  I  even 
half  way  admire  your  zeal  in  a  bad  cause.  But 
take  my  word  for  it,  the  rebellion  has  had  its  day 
and  is  now  virtually  put  down.  Give  my  regards 
to  Captain  Lytle  and  tell  him  to  come  in.  He  will 
not  be  asked  to  compromise  his  honor.  His  verbal 
pledge  not  again  to  take  up  arms  against  the  King 
it  all  thai  will  be  asked  of  him."' 

This  was  another  phase  of  the  character  of  the 
one-armed  Highlander  whose  final  challenge  to  the 
back  water  men  wuj  now  being  considered  in  every 
log  cabin  beyond  the  hills.  A  man  who  would  not 
shoot  an  enemy  in  the  back,  who  was  ready  to  put 

■  Draper,  King's  Mountain  and  its  Ueroen,  pp.  151-53. 


I, 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN  205 

the  same  faith  in  another  soldier's  honor  which 
he  knew  was  due  to  his  own.  yet  in  batth'  a  wolf- 
ish fighter  who  heaped  through  fhe  dark  to  give 
no  quarter  and  to  take  non»'  —  he  was  fit  ehal- 
lenger  to  thos.'  other  mountaineers  who  also  hiul  a 
chivalry  of  their  own,  albeit  they  too  v  wolves 
of  war. 

When  Shelby  on  the  Holston  received  Ferguson's 
pungent  letter,  he  flung  himself  on  his  horse  and 
rode  posthaste  to  Watauga  to  consult  with  Sevier. 
He  f(,und  the  bank  of  the  Xolichucky  teeming 
with  merrymakers.    Nolichucky  Jack  was  giving 
an  immense  barbecue  and  a  horse  race.     Without 
letting  the  festival  crowd  have  an  inkling  of  the 
•serious  nature  of  Shelby's  errand,  the  two  men 
drew  apart  to  confer.     It  is  said  to  have  been  Se- 
vier's idea  that  they  should  muster  the  forces  of 
the  western  country  and  go  in  search  of  Ferguson 
ere  the  latter  should  be  able  to  get  sufficient  re- 
inforcements to  cross  the  mountains.    Sevier,  like 
Ferguson,  always  preferred  to  seek  his  foe,  knowing 
well  the  advantage  of  the  offensive.     Messengers 
were  sent  to  Colonel  William   Campbell  of  the 
Virginia  settlements  on  the  Clinch,  asking  his  aid. 
Campbell  at  first  refused,  thinking  it  better  to 
fortify  the  positions  they  held  and  let  Ferguson 


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M      I 


206  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

come  and  put  the  mountains  between  himself  and 
Comwallis.  On  receipt  of  a  second  message,  how- 
ever, he  concurred.  The  call  to  arms  was  heard  up 
and  down  the  valleys,  and  the  frontiersmen  poured 
into  Watauga.  The  overhill  men  were  augmented 
by  McDowell's  troops  from  Burke  County,  who  had 
dashed  over  the  mountains  a  few  weeks  before  in 
their  escape  from  Ferguson. 

At  daybreak  on  the  26th  of  September  they 
mustered  at  the  Sycamore  Shoals  on  the  Watauga, 
over  a  thousand  strong.  It  was  a  different  picture 
they  made  from  that  other  great  gathering  at  the 
same  spot  when  Henderson  had  made  his  purchase' 
in  money  of  the  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground,  and 
Sevier  and  Robertson  had  bought  for  the  Watau- 
gans  this  strip  of  Tennessee.  There  were  no  In- 
dians in  this  picture.  Dragging  Canoe,  who  had 
uttered  his  bloody  prophecy,  had  by  these  very 
men  been  driven  far  south  into  the  caves  of  the 
Tennessee  River.  But  the  Indian  prophecy  still 
hung  over  them,  and  in  this  day  with  a  heavier 
menace.  Not  with  money,  now,  were  they  to  seal 
their  purchase  of  the  free  land  by  the  western 
waters.  There  had  been  no  women  in  that  other 
picture,  only  the  white  men  who  were  going  for- 
ward to  open  the  way  and  the  red  men  who  were 


iJ 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN  207 

retreating.    But  in  this  picture  there  were  women 
—  wives  and  children,  mothers,  sisters,  and  sweet- 
hearts.   All  the  women  of  the  settlement  were 
there  at  this  daybreak  muster  to  cheer  on  their 
way  the  men  who  were  going  out  to  battle  that 
they  might  keep  the  way  of  liberty  open  not  for 
men  only  but  for  women  and  children  also.    And 
the  battle  to  which  the  men  were  now  going  forth 
must  be  fought  against  Back  Country  men  of  their 
own  stripe  under  a  leader  who,  in  other  circum- 
stances, might  well  have  been  one  of  themselves  — 
a  primitive  spirit  of  hardy  mountain  stock,  who, 
having  once  taken  his  stand,  would  not  barter  and 
would  not  retreat. 

"With  the  Sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon!" 
cried  their  pastor,  the  Reverend  Samuel  Doak, 
with  upraise<l  hands,  as  the  mountaineers  swung 
into  their  saddles.  And  it  is  said  that  all  the 
women  took  up  his  words  and  cried  again  and 
again,  "With  the  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  our 
Gideons ! "  To  the  shouts  of  their  women,  as  bugles 
on  the  wind  of  dawn,  the  buckskin-shirted  army 
dashed  out  upon  the  mountain  trail. 

The  warriors'  equipment  included  rifles  and  am- 
munition, tomahawks,  knives,  shot  pouches,  a  knap- 
sack, and  a  blanket  for  each  man.    Their  uniforms 


\ 

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Bl 


208  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
were  leggings,  breeches,  and  long  loose  shirts  of 
gayly  fringed  deerskin,  or  of  the  linsey-woolsey  spun 
by  their  women.  Their  hunting  shirts  were  bound 
in  at  the  waist  by  bright-colored  linsey  sashes  tied 
behind  in  a  bow.  They  wore  moccasins  for  footgear, 
and  on  their  heads  high  fur  or  deerskin  caps 
trimmed  with  colored  Lands  of  raveled  cloth. 
Around  their  necks  hung  their  powder-horns  orna- 
mented with  their  own  rude  carvings. 

On  the  first  day  they  drove  along  with  them 
a  number  of  beeves  but,  finding  that  the  cattle 
impeded  the  march,  they  left  them  behind  on  the 
mountain  side.  Their  provisions  thereafter  were 
wild  gamt  'ud  the  small  supply  each  man  carried 
of  mixed  torn  meal  and  maple  sugar.  For  drink, 
they  had  the  hill  streams. 

They  passed  upward  between  Roan  and  Yellow 
mountains  to  the  top  of  the  range.  Here,  on  the 
bald  summit,  where  the  loose  snow  lay  to  their 
ankles,  they  halted  for  drill  and  rifle  practice. 
When  Sevier  called  up  his  men,  he  discovered  that 
tw  /ere  missing.  He  suspected  at  once  that  they 
had  slipped  away  to  carry  warning  to  Ferguson, 
for  Watauga  was  known  to  be  infested  with  Tories. 
Two  problems  now  confronted  the  mountaineers. 
They  must  increase  the  speed  of  their  march,  so 


a-      i: 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN  20ft 

that  Ferguson  shoulci  not  have  time  to  get  rein- 
forcements from  Cornwallis;  and  they  nmst  m^ke 
that  extra  speed  by  another  trail  than  they  had 
intended  taking  so  that  they  themselves  could  not 
he  intercepted  before  they  had  picked  up  the  Back 
Country  militia  under  Colonels  Cleveland.  Hamp- 
bright.  Chronicle,  and  Williams,  who  were  moving 
to  join  them.    We  are  not  told  who  took  the  lead 
when  they  left  the  known  trail,  but  we  may  sup- 
pose  it  was  Sevier  and  his  Wataugans,  for  the  mak- 
ing of  new  warpaths  and  wild  riding  were  two  of 
the  things  which  distin^'uished  Nolichucky  Jack's 
leadership.    Down  the  steep  side  of  the  mountain, 
finding  their  way  as  they  plunged,  went  the  over- 
hill  men.    They  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  at  QW- 
lespie's  Gap  and  pushed  on  to  Quaker  Meadows, 
where  Colonel  Cleveland  with  350  men  swung  into 
their  column.  Along  their  route,  the  Back  Country 
Patriots  with  their  rifles  came  out  from  the  little 
hamlets  and  the  farms  and  joined  them. 

They  nr  •  had  an  army  of  perhaps  fifteen  hun- 
dred mei.  a  ^  commanding  oflScer.  Thus  far, 
on  the  march,  the  four  colonels  had  conferred 
together  and  agreed  as  to  procedure;  or,  in  real- 
ity, the  influence  of  Sevier  and  Shelby,  who  had 
planned  the  enterprise  and  who  seem  always  to 


u 


■I, 

id 


•1/ 


>m*u 


iM 


' ' 


810  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
have  acted  in  unison,  had  swayed  the  others.    It 
would  be,  however,  manifestly  improper  to  go  into 
battle  without  u  real  general.    Something  must 
be  done.  McDowell  volunteered  to  carry  a  letter 
explaining  their  need  to  General  Gates,  who  had 
escaped  with  some  of  his  staff  into  North  Carolina 
and  was  not  far  of!.    It  then  occurred  to  Sevier 
and  Shelby,  evidently  for  the  first  time,  that  Gates, 
on  receiving  such  a  request,  might  well  ask  why 
the  Governor  of  North  Carolina,  as  the  military 
head  of  the  State,  had   not  provided   a   com- 
mander.    Ihe  truth  is  that  Sevier  and  Shelby 
had  been  so  busy  drumming  up  the  militia  and 
planning  their  campaign  that  they  had  found 
no  time  to  consult  the  Governor.    Moreover,  the 
means  whereby  the  expedition  had  been  financed 
might  not  have  appealed  to  the  chief  executive. 
After  finding  it  impossible  to  raise  suflBcient  funds 
on  his  personal  credit,  Sevier  had  appropriated 
the  entry  money  in  the  government  land  oflfice  to 
the  business  in  hand  —  with  the  good  will  of  the 
entry  taker,  who  was  a  patriotic  man,  although,  as 
he  had  pointed  out,  he  could  not,  oficially,  hand 
over  the  money.    Things  being  as  they  were,  no 
doubt  Nolichucky  Jack  felt  that  an  interview  with 
the  Governor  had  better  be  deferred  until  after 


13  i  . 


fij 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN  21 1 

the  capture  of  Ferguson.    Hence  the  tenor  of  this 
eommunication  to  Cieneral  Ciates: 

As  we  have  at  this  time  called  out  our  militia  without 
any  orders  from  the  Executive  of  our  different  States 
and  with  the  view  of  expelling  the  Knemv  out  „f  this 
part  of  the  Country,  we  think  such  u  body  (,f  men 
worthy  of  your  attention  and  would  re(|ue.st  you  to  send 
a  General  Officer  innnediately  to  take  the  command. 
.  .  .  All  our  Troops  being  Militia  and  but  little  ac- 
quamted  with  discipline,  we  could  wish  him  to  be  a 
Gentleman  of  address,  and  able  to  keej)  up  a  proper 
discipline  without  diHgusting  the  mldiery. 

For  .some  unknown  reason  -    unless  it  miKht  be 
the  wording  of  this  letter!-  no  officer  was  sent 
in  reply.   Shelby  then  suggested  that,  since  all  the 
officers  but  Campbell  were  North  Carolinians  and, 
therefore,  no  one  of  them  could  be  promoted  with- 
out arousing  the  jealousy  of  the  others,  Campbell, 
as  the  only  Virginian,  was  the  appropriate  choice.' 
The  sweet  reasonableness  of  selecting  a  commander 
from  such  a  motive  appealed  to  all,  and  Campbell 
became  a  general  in  fact  if  not  in  name!    Shelby's 
principal  aim,  however,  had  been  to  get  rid  of  Mc- 
Dowell, who,  as  their  senior,  would  naturally  ex- 
pect to  command  and  whom  he  considered  "too 
far  advanced  in  life  and  too  inactive"  for  such 
an  enterprise.    At  t'lis  time  McDowell  must  have 


i 


» 


I 


Y, 


I 
\ 


hNL  A 


■U 


m 


w 


vi; 


?  I 


Hi  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
been  nearly  thirty-nine;  and  Shelby,  who  was  just 
thirty,  wisely  refused  to  risk  the  campaign  under  a 
general  who  was  in  his  dotage! 

News  of  the  frontiersmen's  approach,  with  their 
augmented  force,  now  numbering  between  sixteen 
and  eighteen  hundred,  had  reached  Ferguson  by 
the  two  Tories  who  had  deserted  from  Sevier's 
troops.     Ferguson  thereupon  had  made  all  haste 
out  of  Gilbert  Town  and  was  marching  southward 
to  get  in  touch  with  Comwallis.    His  force  was 
much  reduced,  as  some  of  his  men  were  in  pursuit 
of  Elijah  Clarke  towards  Augusta  and  a  number  of 
his  other  Tories  were  on  furlough.    As  he  passed 
through  the  Back  Country  he  posted  a  notice  call- 
ing on  the  loyalists  to  join  him.    If  the  overmoun- 
tain  men  felt  that  they  were  out  on  a  wolf  hunt, 
Ferguson's   proclamation   shows   what   the   wolf 
thought  of  his  hunters. 

To  the  Inhabitants  of  North  Carolina. 

Gentlemen:  Unless  you  wish  to  be  eat  up  by  an  in- 
nundation  of  barbarians,  who  have  begun  by  murdering 
an  unarmed  son  before  the  aged  father,  and  afterwards 
lopped  off  his  arms,  and  who  by  their  shocking  cruelties 
and  irregularities  give  the  best  proof  of  their  cowardice 
and  want  of  discipline:  I  say  if  you  wish  to  be  pinioned, 
robbed  and  murdered,  and  see  your  wives  and  daughters 
in  four  days,  abused  by  the  dregs  of  mankind  — in 


i   ! 


m 


n; 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN  213 

short  if  you  wish  to  deserve  to  live  and  Itear  the  uaine  of 
men.  grasp  your  arms  in  a  moment  and  run  to  camp. 

The  Back  Water  men  have  crossed  the  mounUins: 
McDowell,  Hampton.  Shelby,  and  Cleveland  are  at  their 
head,  so  that  you  know  what  you  have  to  depend  upon. 
If  you  choose  to  be  degraded  forever  and  ever  by  a 
aet  of  mongrels,  say  so  at  once,  and  let  your  women 
turn  their  backs  upon  you.  and  look  01 1  for  real  men  to 
protect  them. 

Pat.  Fehcjuson.  Major  71st  Regiment. ' 

Ferguson's  force  has  been  estimated  at  about 
eleven  hundred  men,  but  it  is  likely  I  hat  this  esti- 
mate does  not  take  the  absentees  into  considera- 
tion.   In  the  diary  of  Lieutenant  Allaire,  one  of  his 
oflBcers,  the  number  is  given  as  only  eight  hundred. 
Because  of  the  state  of  his  army,  chroniclers  have 
found  Ferguson's  movements,  after  leaving  (iil- 
bert  Town,  difficult  to  explain.   It  has  been  pointed 
out  that  he  could  easily  have  escaped,  for  he  had 
plenty  of  time,  and  Charlotte,  Cornwallis's  head- 
quarters, was  only  si.xty  miles  distant.    We  have 
seen  something  of  Ferguson's  quality,  however,  and 
we  may  simply  take  it  that  he  did  not  want  to 
escape.    He  had  been  planning  to  cross  the  high 
hills  —  to  him,  the  Highlander,  no  barrier  but  a 
challenge  —  to  fight  these  men.     Now  that  they 

•  Draper,  King'a  Mountain  and  ila  Heroes,  p.  <04. 


ill 


if 


Mi 


V! 


I 


If 


i  i 


•p  -  1 


v.^ 


.iIm^ 


814  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

had  taken  the  initiative  he  would  not  show  them 
his  back.  He  craved  the  battle.  So  he  sent  out 
runners  to  the  main  army  and  rode  on  along  the 
eastern  ba^e  of  the  mountains,  seeking  a  favorable 
site  to  go  into  camp  and  wait  for  Cornwallis's  aid. 
On  the  6th  of  October  he  reached  the  southern  end 
of  the  King's  Mountain  ridge,  in  South  Carolina, 
about  half  a  mile  south  of  the  northern  boundary. 
Here  a  rocky,  semi-isolated  spur  juts  out  from  the 
ridge,  its  summit  —  a  table-land  about  six  hundred 
yards  long  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  wide  at 
its  northern  end  —  rising  not  more  than  sixty  feet 
above  the  surrounding  country.  On  the  summit 
Ferguson  pitched  his  camp. 

The  hill  was  a  natural  fortress,  its  sides  forested, 
its  bald  top  protected  by  rocks  and  bowlders.  All 
the  approaches  led  through  dense  forest.  An  enemy 
force,  passing  through  the  immediate,  wooded  terri- 
tory, might  easily  fail  to  discover  a  small  army 
nesting  sixty  feet  above  the  shrouding  leafage. 
Word  was  evidently  brought  to  Ferguson  here, 
telling  him  the  now  augmented  number  of  his  foe, 
for  he  dispatched  another  emissary  to  Cornwallis 
with  a  letter  stating  the  number  of  his  own  troops 
and  urging  full  and  immediate  asi^istance. 

Meanwhile  the  fronti'  »smen  had  halted  at  the 


I 


KINGS  MOUNTAIN  tl5 

Cowpens.    There  they  feasted  royally  off  roasted 
catl?e  and  com  belonging  to  the  loyalist  who  ownwl 
the  Cowpens.    It  is  said  that  they  mowH  his  fifty 
acres  of  corn  in  an  hour.    And  here  one  of  their 
spies,  in  the  a.ssi.nied  r6le  of  u  Tory,  lenrn.'d  Fer- 
gu.son's  plans,  his  approximate  force,  his  route,  and 
his  .system   of  communication   with  Comwallis. 
The  officers  now  held  council  and  determinefi  to 
take  a  detachment  of  the  hard  ie.st  and  fleetest  horse- 
men and  sweep  down  on  the  enemy  before  aid 
could  reach  him.   About  nine  o'clock  that  evening 
according  to  Shelby's  report.  910  mounted  men  set 
off  at  full  speed,  leaving  the  main  body  of  horse 
and  foot  to  follow  after  at  their  best  pace. 

Rain  poured  down  on  them  all  that  night  as 
they  rode.     At  daybreak  they  crossed  the  Broad 
at  Cherokee  Ford  and  dashed  on  in  the  drenching 
rain  all  the  forenoon.    They  kept  their  firearms  and 
powder  dry  by  wrapping  them  in  their  knapsuck.s, 
blankets,  and  hunting  shirts.    The  downpour  had 
so  churned  up  the  soil  that  many  of  the  horses 
m.red.  but  they  were  pulled  out  and  whipped  for- 
ward again.    The  wild  horsemen  made  no  halt  for 
food  or  rest.    Within  two  miles  of  King's  Mountain 
they  captured  Ferguson's  messenger  with  the  letter 
that  told  of  his  desperate  situation.    They  asked 


'  M 


} 


fi  ^ 


«16  PIONEERS  OP  THE  Ol.n  SOUTHWEST 

this  man  how  they  hHouUI  now  Ferguson.  He 
told  them  that  Ferguson  wa  >  in  full  uniform  hut 
wore  a  checkered  shirt  or  dust  rlcuk  over  it.  This 
was  not  the  only  messenger  o'  F.  ,.  son's  who  failetl 
to  carry  through.  The  met-  '  '>.  f|  sent  out  pre- 
viously had  been  followeo  J.  i  Ui  scftiM*  capture 
or  death,  they  had  been  <!  Ii^eu  t  •  lie  in  hiding, 
so  that  they  did  not  reach  (  i.ti'  ili.s  untii  the  day 
of  the  battle. 

At  three  o'clock  on  the  ji  Nth.  ..i  .  ihe  7th  of 
October,  the  overmountain  i-ien  ^  »•<  <  the  forest 
at  the  base  of  the  hill.  The  raiu  had  c<'n.-cd  and  the 
sun  was  shining.  They  dismounted  and  tethered 
their  steaming  horses.  Orders  were  given  that  every 
man  was  to  '*  throw  the  priming  out  of  his  pan,  pick 
his  touchhole,  prime  anew,  examine  bullets  and  see 
that  everything  was  in  readiness  for  battle."  The 
plan  of  battle  agreed  on  was  to  surround  the  hill, 
hold  the  enemy  on  the  top  and,  themselves  screened 
by  the  trees,  keep  pouring  in  their  fire.  There  was 
a  good  chance  that  most  of  the  answering  fire  would 
go  over  their  heads. 

As  Shelby's  men  crossed  a  gap  in  the  woods,  the 
outposts  on  the  hill  discovered  their  presence  and 
sounded  the  alarm.  Ferguson  sprang  to  horse, 
blowing  his  silver  whistle  to  call  his  men  to  attack. 


^H  'iM-J 

{■ti' ' 

m^r 

II, 


KINO'S  MOUNTAIN  hit 

Hia  riflemen  poumJ  fire  into  Shelhy'M  fontinjfent, 
but  meanwhile  the  front ierMUirn  on  the  other  sides 
were  creeping  up,  and  presently  a  circle  of  fire 
burst  upon  the  hill.    With  fixed  bayonets,  some  of 
Ferguson's  men  charged  down  the  face  of  the  mIoih". 
against  the  advancing  foe,  only  to  be  shot  in  the 
back  as  they  charged.    Still  time  and  time  again 
they  charged;  theoverhill  men  reeled  and  retreated; 
but  always  their  comrades  took  toll  with  their 
rifles;  Ferguson's  men,  preparing  for  a  mounted 
charge,  were  shot  even  as  they  swung  to  their 
saddles.     Ferguson,  with  his  customary  indiffer- 
ence to  danger,  rode  up  and  down  in  front  of  his 
line  blowing  his  whistle  to  encourage  his  men. 
"  Huzza,  brave  boys !   The  day  is  our  own ! "   Thus 
he  was  heard  to  shout  above  the  triumphant  war 
whoops  of  the  circling  foe,  surging  higher  and 
higher  about  the  hill. 

But  there  were  others  in  his  band  who  knew  the 
fight  was  lost.  The  overuiountain  men  saw  two 
white  handkerchiefs,  affixed  to  bayonets,  raised 
above  the  rocks;  and  then  they  saw  Ferguson  dash 
by  and  slash  them  down  with  his  sword.  'I'wo 
horses  were  shot  under  Ferguson  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  action;  but  he  mounted  a  third  and  rode 
again  into  the  thick  of  the  fray. 


i 


r 


i 


218  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Suddenly  the  cry  spread  among  the  attacking 
troops  that  the  British  officer,  Tarleton,  had  come 
to  Ferguson's  rescue;  and  the  mountaineers  began 
to  give  way.  But  it  was  only  the  galiopmg  horses 
of  their  own  comrades;  Tarleton  had  not  come. 
Nolichucky  Jack  spurred  out  in  front  of  his  men 
and  rode  along  the  line.  Fired  by  his  courage  they 
sounded  the  war  whoop  again  and  renewed  the 
attack  with  fury. 

"These  are  the  same  yelling  devils  that  were 
at  Musgrove's  Mill,"  said  Captain  De  Peyster 
to  Ferguson. 

Now  Shelby  and  Sevier,  leading  his  Wataugans, 
had  reached  the  summit.  The  firing  circle  pressed  in. 
Thebuckskin-shirted  warriors  leaped  the  rocky  bar- 
riers, swinging  their  tomahawks  and  long  knives. 
Again  the  white  handkerchiefs  fluttered.  Ferguson 
saw  that  the  morale  of  his  troops  was  shattered. 

"Surrender,"  De  Peyster,  his  second  in  com- 
mand, begged  of  him. 

"Surrender  to  those  damned  banditti?    Never!" 

Ferguson  turned  his  horse's  head  downhill  and 
charged  into  the  Wataugans,  hacking  right  and  left 
with  his  sword  till  it  was  broken  at  the  hilt.  A 
dozen  rifles  were  leveled  at  him.  An  iron  muzzle 
pushed  at  his  breast,  but  the  powder  flashed  in  the 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN  S19 

pan.  He  swerved  and  struck  at  the  rifleman  with 
his  broken  hilt.  But  the  other  guns  aimed  at  him 
spoke;  and  Ferguson's  body  jerked  from  the  saddle 
pierced  by  eight  bullets.  Men  seized  the  bridle 
of  the  frenzied  horse,  plunging  on  with  his  dead 
master  dragging  from  the  stirrup. 

The  battle  had  lasted  less  than  an  hour.  After 
Ferguson  fell,  De  Peyster  advanced  with  a  white 
flag  and  surrendered  his  sword  to  Campbell.  Other 
while  flags  waved  along  the  hilltop.  But  the  kill- 
ing did  not  yet  cease.  It  is  said  that  many  of  the 
mountaineers  did  not  know  the  significance  of  the 
white  flag.  Sevier's  sixteen-year-old  son,  having 
heard  that  his  father  had  fallen,  kept  on  furiously 
loading  and  firing  until  presently  he  saw  Sevier  ride 
in  among  the  troops  and  command  them  l<>  stop 
shooting  men  who  had  surrendered  and  thrown 
down  their  arms. 

The  victors  made  a  bonfire  of  the  enemy's  bag- 
gage wagons  and  supplies.  Then  they  killed  some 
of  his  beeves  and  cooked  them;  they  had  had  nei- 
ther food  nor  sleep  for  eighteen  hours.  They  dug 
shallow  trenches  for  the  dead  and  scattered  the 
loose  earth  over  them.  Ferguson's  body,  stripped 
of  its  uniform  and  boots  and  wrapped  in  a  beef 
hide,  was  thrown  into  one  of  these  ditches  by 


*  11 

A 


ti 


2«0  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 


1 1      .5 


the  men  detailed  to  the  burial  work,  while  the  ofiB- 
cers  divided  his  personal  effects  among  themselves. 

The  triumphant  army  turned  homeward  as  the 
dusk  descended.  The  uninjured  prisoners  and  the 
wounded  who  were  able  to  walk  were  marched  off 
carrying  their  empty  firearms.  The  badly  wounded 
were  left  lying  where  they  had  fallen. 

At  Bickerstaff 's  Old  Fields  in  Rutherford  County 
the  frontiersmen  halted;  and  here  they  selected 
thirty  of  their  prisoners  to  be  hanged.  They  swung 
them  aloft,  by  torchlight,  three  at  a  time,  until 
nine  had  gone  to  their  last  account.  Then  Sevier 
interposed;  and,  with  Shelby's  added  authority, 
saved  the  other  twenty-one.  Among  those  who 
thus  weighted  the  gallows  tree  were  some  of 
the  Tory  brigands  from  Watauga;  but  not  all  the 
victims  were  of  this  character.  Some  of  the  troops 
would  have  wreaked  vengeance  on  the  two  Tories 
from  Sevier's  command  who  had  betrayed  their 
army  plans  to  Ferguson;  but  Sevier  claimed  them 
as  under  his  jurisdiction  and  refused  consent. 
Nolichucky  Jack  dealt  humanely  by  his  foes.  To 
the  coarse  and  brutish  Cleveland,  now  astride  of 
Ferguson's  horse  and  wearing  his  sash,  and  to  the 
three  hundred  who  followed  him,  may  no  doubt  be 
laid  the  worst  excesses  of  the  battle's  afterpiece. 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN  221 

Victors  and  vanquished  drove  on  in  the  dark, 
close  to  the  great  flank  of  hills.   From  where  King's 
Mountain,  strewn  with  dead  and  dying,  reared  its 
black  shape  like  some  rudely  hewn  tomb  of  a  pri- 
mordial age  when  titans  strove  together,  perhaps 
to  the  ears  of  the  marching  men  came  faintly 
through  the  night's  stillness  the  howl  of  a  wolf  and 
the  an«»wering  chorus  of  the  pack.    For  the  wolves 
came  down  to  King's  Mountain  from  all  the  sur- 
rounding hills,  following  the  scent  of  blood,  and 
made  their  lair  where  the  Werewolf  had  fallen. 
The  scene  of  the  mountaineers'  victory,  which 
marked  the  turn  of  the  tide  for  the  Revolution, 
became  for  years  the  chief  resort  of  wolf  hunters 
from  both  the  Carolinas. 

The  importance  of  the  overmountain  men's  vic- 
tory lay  in  what  it  achieved  for  tb :  cause  of  Inde- 
pendence. King's  Mountain  was  the  prelude  to 
Cornwallis's  defeat.  It  heartened  the  Southern 
Patriots,  until  then  cast  down  by  Gates's  disaster. 
To  the  British  the  death  of  Ferguson  was  an  irre- 
parable loss  because  of  its  depressing  effect  on  the 
Back  Country  Tories.  King's  Mountain,  indeed, 
broke  the  Tory  spirit.  Seven  days  after  the  battle 
General  Nathanael  Greene  succeeded  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  Southern  Patriot  army  which  (Jates 


H 

*     L 

n 


ii 


1    V 


222  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

had  led  to  defeat.  Greene's  genius  met  the  rising 
tide  of  the  Patriots'  courage  and  hope  and  took  it  at 
the  flood.  His  strategy,  in  dividing  his  army  and 
thereby  compeMing  the  division  of  Cornwallis's 
force,  led  to  Daniel  Morgan's  victory  at  the  Cow- 
pens,  in  the  Back  Country  of  South  Carolina,  on 
January  17,  1781  —  another  frontiersmen's  tri- 
umph. Though  the  British  won  the  next  engage- 
ment between  Greene  and  Cornwallis  —  the  battle 
of  Guilford  Court  House  in  the  North  Carolina  Back 
Country,  on  the  15th  of  March — Greene  made  them 
pay  so  dearly  for  their  victory  that  Tarleton  called 
it  "the  pledge  of  ultimate  defeat";  and,  three  days 
later,  Cornwallis  was  retreating  towards  Wilming- 
ton. In  a  sense,  then.  King's  Mountain  was  the 
pivot  of  the  war's  revolving  stage,  which  swung  the 
British  from  their  succession  of  victories  towards 
the  surrendcF  at  Yorktown. 

Shelby,  Campbell,  and  Cleveland  escorted  the 
prisoners  to  Virginia.  Sevier,  with  his  men,  rode 
home  to  Watauga.  When  the  prisoners  had  been 
delivered  to  the  authorities  in  Virginia,  the  Hol- 
ston  men  also  turned  homeward  through  the  hills. 
Their  route  lay  dow^n  through  the  Clinch  and  Hol- 
ston  valleys  to  the  settlement  at  the  base  of  the 


•  H    if 


m 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN  S23 

mountains.  Sevier  and  his  Wataugans  had  gone  by 
Gillespie's  Gap,  over  the  pathway  that  hung  like  a 
narrow  ribbon  about  the  breast  of  Roan  Moun- 
tain, lifting  its  crest  in  dignified  isolation  sixty- 
three  hundred  feet  above  the  levels.  The  "  Unakas  " 
was  the  name  the  Cherokees  had  given  to  those 
white  men  who  first  invaded  their  hills;  and  the 
Unakas  is  the  name  that  white  men  at  last  gave 
to  the  mountains. 

Great  companies  of  men  were  to  come  over  the 
mountain  paths  on  their  way  to  the  Mississippi 
country  and  beyond;  and  with  them,  as  we  know, 
were  to  go  many  of  these  mountain  men,  to  pass 
away  with  their  customs  in  the  transformations 
that  come  with  progress.    But  there  were  others 
who  clung  to  these  hills.     They  were  of  several 
stocks  —  English,    Scotch,    Highlanders,    Ulster- 
men,  who  mingled  by  marriage  and  sometimes  took 
their  mates  from  among  the  handsome  maids  of 
the  Cherokees.    They  spread  from  the  Unakas  of 
Tennessee  into  the  Cumberland  Mountains  of  Ken- 
tucky; and  they  have  remained  to  this  day  what 
they  were  then,  a  primitive  folk  of  strong  and 
fiery  men  and  brave  women  living  as  their  fore- 
fathers of  Watauga  and  Holston  lived.    In  the  log 
cabins  in  those  mountains  today  are  heard  the 


*1 


I 


224  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

same  ballads,  sung  still  to  the  dulcimer,  that  enter- 
tained the  earliest  settlers.  The  women  still  turn 
the  old-fashioned  spinning  wheels.  The  code  of 
the  men  is  still  the  code  learned  perhaps  from  the 
Gaels  —  the  code  of  the  oath  and  the  feud  and 
the  open  door  to  the  stranger.  Or  were  these,  the 
ethical  tenets  of  almost  all  uncorrupted  primitive 
tribes,  transmitted  from  the  Indian  strain  and  as- 
sociation.' Their  young  people  marry  at  boy  and 
girl  ages,  as  the  pioneers  did,  and  their  wedding 
festivities  are  the  same  as  those  which  made  re- 
joicing at  the  first  marriage  in  Watauga.  Their 
common  speech  today  contains  words  that  have 
been  obsolete  in  England  for  a  hundred  years. 

Thrice  have  the  mountain  men  come  down  again 
from  their  fastnesses  to  war  for  America  since  the 
day  of  King's  Mountain  and  thrice  they  have  ac- 
quitted themselves  so  that  their  deeds  are  noted  in 
history.  A  souvenir  of  their  part  in  the  War  of 
1812  at  the  Battle  of  the  Thames  is  kept  in  one  of 
the  favorite  names  for  mountain  girls  —  "Lake 
Erie."  In  the  Civil  War  many  volunteers  from 
the  free,  non-slaveholding  mountain  regions  of 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  joined  the  Union  Army, 
and  it  is  said  that  they  exceeded  all  others  in  stat- 
ure and  physical  development.    And  in  our  own 


m.:i  \  J 


p  'I 


KINGS  MOUNTAIN  2^5 

day  their  sons  again  came  down  from  tho  moun- 
tains to  carry  the  torch  of  Liberty  overseas,  and 
to  show  the  white  stars  in  their  flag  side  by  side 
with  the  ancient  cross  in  the  flag  of  England 
against  which  their  forefathers  fought. 


IS 


CHAPTER  X 


SEVIER,  THE  8TATEMAKER 


I'  I! 


1 


After  King's  Mountain,  Sevier  reached  home  just 
in  time  to  fend  off  a  Cherokee  attack  on  Watauga. 
Again  warning  had  come  to  the  settlements  that 
the  Indians  were  about  to  descend  upon  them.   Se- 
vier .set  out  at  once  to  meet  the  red  invaders.  Learn- 
ing from  his  scouts  that  the  Indians  were  near  he 
went  into  ambush  with  his  troops  disposed  in  the 
figure  of  a  half -moon,  the  favorite  Indian  for- 
mation.   He  then  sent  out  a  small  body  of  men 
to  fire  on  the  Indians  and  make  a  scampering  re- 
treat, to  lure  the  enemy  on.   The  maneuver  was  so 
well  planned  and  the  ground  so  well  chosen  that  the 
Indian  war  party  would  probably  have  been  annihi- 
lated but  for  the  delay  of  an  officer  at  one  horn  of 
the  half -moon  in  bringing  his  troops  into  play. 
Through  the  gap  thus  made  the  Indians  escaped, 
with  a  loss  of  seventeen  of  their  number.  The  delin- 
quent officer  was  Jonathan  Tipton,  younger  brother 


SEVIER,  THE  STATEMAKER  ««? 

of  Colonel  John  Tipton.of  whom  we  shall  hear  later. 
It  is  possible  that  from  this  event  dates  the  Tip- 
tons'  feud  with  Sevier,  which  supplies  one  of  the 
breeziest  pages  in  the  story  of  early  Tennessee. 

Not  content  with  putting  the  marauders  to  flight, 
Sevier  pressed  on  after  them,  burned  several  of  the 
upper  towns,  and  took  prisoner  a  number  of  women 
and  children,  thus  putting  the  red  warriors  to  the 
depth  of  shame,  for  the  Indians  never  deserted  their 
women  in  battle.  The  chiefs  at  once  sued  for  peace. 
But  they  had  made  peace  often  before.  Sevier  drove 
down  upon  the  Hiwasse.^  towns,  meanwhile  pro- 
claiming that  those  among  the  tribe  who  were 
friendly  might  send  their  familie.s  to  the  white 
settlement,  where  they  would  be  fed  and  cared 
for  until  a  sound  peace  should  be  assured.    He 
also  threatened  to  continue  to  make  war  until  his 
enemies  were  wiped  out,  their  town  sites  a  heap  of 
blackened  ruins,  and  their  whole  country  in  pos- 
session of  the  whites,  unless  they  bound  them- 
selves to  an  enduring  peace. 

Having  compelled  the  submission  of  the  OUri 
and  Hiwassee  towns,  yet  finding  that  depredations 
still  continued,  Sevier  determined  to  invade  the 
group  of  towns  hidden  in  the  mountain  fastnesses 
r     r  the  headwaters  of  the  Little  Tennessee  where, 


:    I 


i 


8S8  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

deeming  themselves  inaccessible  except  by  their 
own  trail,  the  Cherokees  freely  plo'cted  mischief 
and  sent  out  raiding  parties.  These  hill  towns  lay 
in  the  high  gorges  of  the  Great  Smoky  Moun- 
tains, 150  miles  distant.  No  one  in  Watauga  had 
ever  been  in  them  except  Thomas,  the  trader,  who, 
however,  had  reached  them  from  the  eastern 
side  of  the  mountains.  With  no  knowledge  of  the 
Indians'  path  and  without  a  guide,  yet  nothing 
daunted,  Sevier,  late  in  the  summer  of  1781  headed 
his  force  into  the  mountains.  So  steep  were  some 
of  the  slopes  they  scaled  that  the  men  were  obliged 
to  dismount  and  help  their  horses  up.  Unexpect- 
edly to  themselves  perhaps,  as  well  as  to  the  In- 
dians, they  descended  one  morning  on  a  group  of 
villages  and  destroyed  them.  Before  the  fleeing 
savages  could  rally,  the  mountaineers  had  plunged 
up  the  steeps  again.  Sevier  then  turned  southward 
into  Georgia  and  inflicted  a  severe  castigation  on 
the  tribes  along  the  Coosa  River. 

When,  after  thirty  days  of  warfare  and  mad 
riding,  Sevier  arrived  at  his  Bonnie  Kate's  door 
on  the  Nolichucky,  he  found  a  messenger  from 
General  Greene  calling  on  him  for  immediate  as- 
sistance to  cut  off  Comwallis  from  his  expected 
retreat  through  North  Carolina.    Again  he  set  out. 


41  ^tl 


i 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKKR  «<o 

and  with  two  hundred  men  orosued  tlie  mountains 
and  made  all  speed  to  Charldtte,  in  Mecklenburg 
County,  where  he  learned  that  Comwalliji  had  sur- 
rendered at  Yorklown  on  October  19,  1781.     Un- 
der Greene's  orders  he  turned  south  to  the  Santee 
to  assist  u  fellow  scion  of  the  Huguenots,  General 
Francis  Marion,  in  the  pursuit  of  Stuart's  Brit- 
ishers.    Having  driven  Stuart  into  Charleston, 
Sevier  and  his  active  Watauguns  returned  home, 
now  perhaps  looking  forward  to  a  rest,  which  they 
had  surely  earned.    Once  more,  however,  they  were 
hailed  with  alarming  news.    Dragging  Canoe  Imd 
come  to  life  again  and  was  emerging  from  the 
caves  of  the  Tennessee  with  a  substantial  force  of 
Chickamaugan  warriors.    Again  the  Wataugans. 
augmented  by  a  detachment  from  Sullivan  Coun- 
ty, galloped  forth,  met  the  red  warriors,  chastised 
them  heavily,  put  them  to  rout,  burned  their  dwell- 
ings and  provender,  and  drove  them  back  into  their 
hiding  places.     For  some  time  after  this,  the  In- 
dians dipped  not  into  the  black  pdnt  pots  of  war 
but  were  content  to  streak  their  humbled  counte- 
nances with  the  vermilion  of  beauty  and  innocence. 

It  should  be  chronicled  that  Sevier,  assisted  pos- 
sibly by  other  Wataugans,  eventually  returned 


I 


f 

II 


('i 


<  A 


l-^ 


I 

4. 

I' 

l,« 


■•IV 


9S0  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

to  the  State  of  North  Carolina  the  money  which 
he  had  forcibly  borrowed  to  finance  the  King's 
Mountain  expedition;  und  that  neither  he  nor 
Shelby  received  any  pay  for  their  services,  nor 
asked  it.  Before  Shelby  left  the  Holston  in  178« 
and  moved  to  Kentucky,  of  which  State  he  was  to 
become  the  first  Governor,  the  Assembly  of  North 
Carolina  passed  a  resolution  of  gratitude  to  the 
overmountain  men  in  general,  and  to  Sevier  and 
Shelby  in  particular,  for  their  "very  generous  and 
patriotic  services"  with  which  the  "General  As- 
sembly of  this  State  are  feelingly  impressed. "  The 
resolution  concluded  by  urging  the  recipients  of 
the  Assembly \h  acknowledgments  to  "continue" 
in  their  noble  course.  In  view  of  what  followed, 
this  resolution  in  interesting! 

For  some  time  the  overhill  pioneers  had  been 
growing  dissatisfied  with  the  treatment  they  were 
receiving  fron>  the  State,  which  on  the  plea  of 
poverty  had  refused  to  establish  a  Superior  Court 
for  them  and  to  appoint  a  prosecutor.  As  a  result, 
crime  was  on  the  increase,  and  the  law-abiding  were 
deprived  of  the  proper  legal  means  to  check  the  law- 
less. In  1784  when  the  western  soldiers*  claims  be- 
gan to  reach  the  Assembly,  there  to  be  scrutinized 
by  unkindly  eyes,  the  dissatisfaction  increased. 


ill 


SEVIER.  TICK  STATEMAKKR  <ai 

The  breastM  of  the  Miounfain  iiicii  -    the  men  who 
had  made  that  spwtaciilMr  ride  to  bring  Ker^ison 
to  hM  end   -  wen'  kindled  with  hot  indignation 
when  they  heard  that  they  had  been  pubh'cly  a-s- 
sailad  ax  gnwping  f)er»*on»  who  seize«l  on  every 
pretense  to  "fabricate  demands  again.st  the  (iov- 
ernment. "    Nor  were  those  fiery  breasts  c-ooled  by 
further  plaints  to  the  effw  t  that  the  "industry  and 
property"  of  those  east  of  tlie  hills  were  "becom- 
ing the  funds  appropriated  to  discharge  the  debts  " 
of  the  Westerners.    Tr»ey  might  with  justice  have 
asked  what  the  industry  and  property  of  the  Kast- 
emers  were  worth  on  that  day  when  the  overhill 
men  drilled  in  the  snows  on  the  high  peak  of  Yellow 
Mountain  and  looked  down  on   Burke  County 
overrun  by  Ferguson's  Tories,  and  beyond,  to  Char- 
lotte, where  lay  Cornwallis. 

The  North  Carolina  Assembly  did  not  confine 
itself  to  ira|K)lite  remarks.  It  proceeded  to  get  rid 
of  what  it  deemed  western  rapacity  by  ceding  the 
whole  overmountain  territory  to  the  United  States, 
with  the  proviso  that  Congress  must  accept  the  gift 
within  twelve  months.  And  after  passing  the  Ces- 
sion Act,  North  Carolina  closed  the  land  office  in 
the  undesired  domain  and  nullified  all  entries  made 
after  May  25, 1784.    The  Cession  Act  also  enabled 


rjl 


t 


P 


I  "I 


U' 


tl 


I' 


ms 


23«  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
the  State  to  evade  its  obligations  to  the  Cherokeeti 
in  the  matter  of  an  expensive  consignment  of  goods 
to  pay  for  new  lands. 

This  clever  stroke  of  the  Assembly's  brought 
al)out  immediate  consequences  in  the  region  be- 
yond the  hills.  The  Cherokees,  who  knew  nothing 
about  the  Assembly's  system  of  political  economy 
but  who  found  their  own  provokingly  upset  by  the 
non-arrival  of  the  promised  goods,  began  again  to 
darken  the  mixture  in  their  paint  pots;  and  they 
dug  up  thf?  war  hatchet,  never  indeed  so  deeply 
patted  down  under  the  dust  that  it  could  not  be 
unearthed  by  a  stub  of  the  toe.  Needless  to  say, 
it  was  not  the  thrifty  and  distant  Easterners  who 
felt  their  anger,  but  the  nearby  settlements. 

As  for  the  white  overhill  dwellers,  the  last  straw 
had  bwn  laid  on  their  backs;  and  it  felt  like  a  hick- 
ory log.  No  sooner  had  the  Assembly  adjourned 
than  the  men  of  Washmgton,  Sullivan,  and  Greene 
wunties,  which  comprised  the  settled  portion 
of  what  is  now  east  Tennessee,  elected  delegates 
to  convene  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  for- 
mation of  a  new  State.  They  could  assert  that 
they  were  not  acting  illegally,  for  in  her  first  con- 
stitution North  Carolina  had  made  provision 
for  a  State  beyond  the  mountains.    And  necessity 


ti;-' 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  sss 

compelled  them  to  take  steps  for  their  protec- 
tion. Some  of  them,  and  Sevier  was  of  the  number, 
doubted  if  Congress  would  accept  the  costly  gift; 
and  the  majority  realized  that  during  the  twelve 
months  which  were  allowed  for  the  decision  they 
would  have  no  protection  from  either  North  Caro- 
lina or  Congress  and  would  not  be  able  to  command 
their  own  resources. 

In  August,  1784.  the  delegates  met  at  Jones- 
borough  and  passed  preliminary  resolutions,  and 
then  adjourned  to  neet  later  in  the  year.    The 
news  was  soon  disseninated  through  North  Caro- 
lina and  the  Assembly  convened  in  October  and 
hastily  repealed  the  Cession  Act,  voted  to  estab- 
lish the  District  of  Washington  out  of  the  four 
counties,  and  sent  word  of  the  altered  policy  to 
Sevier,  with  a  commission  for  himself  as  Brigadier 
General.    From  the  steps  of  the  improvised  con- 
vention hall,  before  which  the  delegates  had  gath- 
ered, Sevier  read   the  Assembly's  message  and 
advised  his  neighbors  to  proceed  no  further,  since 
North  Carolina  had  of  her  own  accord  redressed 
all  their  grievances.   But  for  once  Nolichucky  Jack's 
followers  refused  to  follow.    The  adventure  too 
greatly  appealed.  Obliged  to  choose  between  North 
Carolina  and  his  own  people,  Sevier's  hesiUtion 


n 


V, 


I- !  *■ 


«34  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
was  short.    The  State  of  Frankland,  or  Land  of  the 
Free,  was  formed;  and  Nolichucky  Jack  was  ele- 
vated to  the  office  of  Governor  —  with  a  yearly 
salary  of  two  hundred  mink  skins. 

Perhaps  John  Tipton  had  hoped  to  head  the  new 
State,  for  he  had  been  one  of  its  prime  movers  and 
was  a  delegate  to  this  convention.  But  when  the 
man  whom  he  hated  —  apparently  for  no  reason  ex- 
cept that  other  men  loved  him  —  assented  to  the 
peopJes  will  and  was  appointed  to  the  highest 
post  wiiliin  their  gift,  Tipton  withdrew,  disavow- 
ing all  connection  with  Frankland  and  affirming 
his  loyalty  to  North  Carolina.  From  this  time  on, 
the  feud  was  an  open  one. 

That  brief  and  now  forgotten  State,  Frankland, 
the  Land  of  the  Free,  which  bequeathed  its  name 
as  an  appellation  for  America,  was  founded  as  Wa- 
tauga had  been  founded  —  to  meet  the  practical 
needs  and  aspirations  of  its  people.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  one  of  the  things  written  by  Sevier 
into  the  only  Watauga  document  extant  was  thai 
they  desired  to  become  "in  every  way  the  best  mem- 
bers of  societ}-."  Frankland*s  aims,  as  recorded, 
mcluded  the  mtent  to  "improve  agriculture,  perfect 
manufacturing,  encourage  literature  and  every  thing 
truly  laudable." 


SEVIER,  THE  STATEMAV'ER  «85 

The  constitution  of  Frankland,  agreed  to  on  the 
14th  of  November,  1785,  appeals  to  us  today  rather 
by  its  spirit  than  by  its  practical  provisions.  "  This 
State  shall  be  called  the  Commonwealth  of  Frank- 
land  and  shall  be  governed  by  a  General  Assembly 
of  the  representatives  of  the  freemen  of  the  same,  a 
Governor  and  Council,  and  proper  courts  of  jus- 
tice. .  .  .  The  supreme  legislative  power  shall 
be  vested  in  a  single  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  freemen  of  the  commonwealth  of  Frankland. 
The  House  of  Representatives  of  the  freemen  of 
the  State  shall  crasist  of  persons  most  noted  for 
wisdom  and  virtue. " 

In  these  exalted  desires  of  the  primitive  men  who 
bdd  by  their  rifles  and  hatchets  the  land  by  the 
western  waters,  we  lee  the  influence  of  the  Rever- 
end Samuel  Doak,  tfceir  pastor,  who  founded  the 
first  church  and  the  first  school  beyond  the  great 
hills.  Early  in  the  Iff*-  of  Watauga  he  had  come 
thither  from  Princeton,  a  Jtcaious  and  broadminded 
young  man.  and  a  sturdy  one,  too,  for  he  came  oh 
foot  driving  before  him  a  mule  laden  with  books. 
Legend  credits  another  minister,  the  Reverend  Sam- 
uel Houston,  with  suggesting  the  name  of  Frank- 
land,  after  he  had  C4>ened  the  Convention  with 
prayer.  It  is  not  surpriajng  to  learn  that  thi.>iglorified 


;  yl 


53?F3K 


|v 


1 1 


li . 


236  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

constitution  was  presently  put  aside  in  favor  of  one 
modeled  on  that  of  North  Carolina. 

Sevier  persuaded  the  more  radical  members  of 
the  community  to  abandon  their  extreme  views  and 
to  adopt  the  laws  of  North  Carolina.  However  law- 
less his  acts  as  Governor  of  a  bolting  colony  may 
appear,  Sevier  was  essentially  a  constructive  force. 
His  purposes  were  right,  and  small  motives  are  not 
discernible  in  his  record.  He  might  reasonably 
urge  that  the  Franklanders  had  only  followed  the 
example  of  North  Carolina  and  the  other  American 
States  in  seceding  from  the  parent  body,  and  for 
similar  causes,  for  the  SUte's  system  of  taxation 
had  long  borne  heavily  on  the  overhill  men. 

The  whole  transmontane  populace  welcomed 
Frankland  with  enthusiasm.  Major  Arthur  Camp- 
bell, of  the  Virginian  settlements,  on  the  Holston, 
was  eager  to  join.  Sevier  and  his  Assembly  took  the 
necessary  steps  to  receive  the  overhill  Virginians, 
provided  that  the  transfer  of  allegiance  could 
be  made  with  Virginia's  consent.  Meanwhile 
he  replied  in  a  dignified  manner  to  the  pained 
and  menacing  expostulations  of  North  Carolina's 
Governor.  North  Carolina  was  bidden  to  remem- 
ber the  epithets  her  assemblymen  had  hurled 
at  the  Westerners,  which  they  themselves  had  by 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  237 

no  means  forgotten.  And  was  it  any  wonder  t  hat 
they  now  doubted  the  love  the  parent  State  pro- 
fessed to  feel  for  them?  As  for  the  puerile  threat 
of  bloofi,  had  their  r|uality  really  so  soon  become 
obliterated  fron.  the  memory  of  North  Carolinji? 
At  this  sort  of  writing,  Sevier,  who  always  pulsed 
hot  with  emotion  an<l  who  ha<l  a  r)retty  knack  in 
turning  a  phrase,  was  more  than  a  match  for  the 
(Jovernor  of  North  Carolina,  whos.-  ,)r.rogatives 
he  had  usurped. 

The  overmountain  men   no  long«'r   nvitUu]  to 
eomplain  bitterly  of  the  lack  of  legal  machinerv  to 
keep  them  "the  best  members  of  society. "    'I'hey 
now  had  courts  to  spare.    Prankland  had  its  «,urt  s, 
its  judges,  its  legislative  body,  its  land  offic..       in 
fact,  a  full  governmental  equipment .    North  Caro- 
lina also  performed  all  the  natural  functions  of 
political  organism,  within  the  western  territory. 
Sevier  appointed  one  David  Campbell  a  judg«'. 
Campbell  held  court  in  Jonesborough.    Ten  miles 
away,  in  Butfalo.  Colonel  John  Tipton  presidtd 
for  North  Carolina.    It  happened  frequently  that 
officers  and  attendants  of  the  rival  law  courtl  met, 
as  they  pursued  their  duties,  and  whenever  they 
met  they  fought,    'i'he  post  of  sheriff  -    or  sheriffs, 
for  of  course  there  were  two—  was  filled  by  the 


I-' 


lA'^: 


238  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
biggest  and  heaviest  man  and  the  hardest  hitter 
in  the  ranks  of  the  warring  factions.    A  favorite 
game  was  raiding  each  other's  courts  and  carrying 
off  the  records.     Prankland  sent  WiUiam  Cocke, 
later  the  first  senator  from  Tennessee,  to  Congress 
with  a  memorial,  a.sking  Congress  to  accept  the 
territory  North  Carolina  had  offered  and  to  receive 
it  into  the  Union  as  a  separate  State.     Congress 
ignored  the  plea.    It  began  to  appear  that  North 
Carolina  would  be  victor  in  the  end:  and  so  there 
were  defections  among  the  Franklanders.    Sevier 
wrote  to  Benjamin  Franklin  asking  his  aid  in  es- 
tablishing the  status  of  Prankland;  and,  with  a 
graceful  flourish  of  his  ready  pen,  changed  the  new 
State's  name  to  Franklin  by  way  of  reinforcing 
his  arguments.    But  the  old  philosopher,  more  ex- 
pert than  Sevier  in  diplomatic-  calligraphy,  only  ac- 
knowledged the  compliment  and  advised  the  State 
of  Franklin  to  make  peace  with  North  Carolina. 

Sevier  then  appealed  for  aid  and  recognition  to 
the  Governor  of  Georgia,  who  had  previously  ap- 
pointed him  Brigadier  General  of  militia.  But  the 
Governor  of  Georgia  also  avoided  giving  the  rec- 
ognition requested,  though  he  earnestly  besought 
Sevier  to  come  down  and  settle  the  Creeks  for  him. 
There  were  others  who  sent  pleas  to  Sevier,  the 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  239 

warrior,  to  save  them  from  the  savages.  One  of 
the  writers  who  addressed  him  did  not  fear  to  say 
"  Your  Excellency,  '*  nor  to  accord  Nolichucky  Jack 
the  whole  dignity  of  the  purple  in  appealing  to 
him  as  the  only  man  possessing  the  will  and  the 
power  to  prevent  the  isolated  settlements  on  the 
Cumberland  from  being  wiped  out.  That  writer 
was  his  old  friend,  James  Robertson. 

In   1787,  while  Sevier  was  on  the  frontier  of 
Greene  County,  defending  it  from  Indians,  the 
legal  forces  of  North  Carolina  swooped  down  on 
his  estate  and  took  possession  of  his  negroes.    It 
was  Tipton  who  represented  the  law;  and  Tipton 
•  arried  off  the  Governor's  slaves  to  his  own  estate. 
When  Nolichucky  Jack  came  home  and  found  that 
his  enemy  had  stripped  him,  he  was  in  u  towering 
rage.     With  a  body  of  his  troops  and  one  snmll 
cannon,  he  marched  to  Tipton's  house  and  besieged 
it,  threatening  a  bombardment.    He  did  not.  how- 
ever, fire  into  the  dwelling,  though  he  placed  .some 
shots  about  it  and  in  the  extreme  corners.    This 
opera  bouffe  siege  endured  for  .several  days,  uniil 
Tipton  was  reinforced  by  some  of  his  own  cli(iue. 
Then  Tipton  .sallied  forth  and  attacked  I  he  be- 
siegers, who  hastily  MUtUred  rallier  Jhaii  «ngag« 
in  a  sanguinary  fight  u  ith  their  neig|il)ors.    Tipton 


r 


840  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
captured  Sevier's  two  elder  sous  and  was  only  re- 
strained from  hanging  them  on  being  informed 
that  two  of  his  own  sons  were  at  that  moment  in 
Sevier's  hands. 

In  March,  1788,  the  State  of  Franklin  went  into 
eclipse.  Sevier  was  overthrown  by  the  authorities 
of  North  Carolina.  Most  of  the  officials  who  had 
served  under  him  were  soothed  by  being  reap- 
pointed to  their  old  positions.  Tipton's  star  was 
now  in  the  ascendant,  for  his  enemy  was  to  be  made 
the  vicarious  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  all  whom  he 
had  "  led  astray. "  Presently  David  Campbell,  still 
graciously  permitted  to  preside  over  the  Supe- 
rior Court,  received  from  the  Governor  of  North 
Carolina  the  following  letter: 

Sir:  It  has  been  represented  to  the  Executive  that 
John  Sevier,  who  styles  himself  Captain-General  of  the 
State  of  Franklin,  has  been  guilty  of  high  treason  in 
levying  troops  to  oppose  the  laws  and  government  of 
the  State.  .  .  .  You  will  issue  your  warrant  to  appre- 
hend the  said  John  Sevier,  and  in  case  he  cannot  be  suflS- 
ciently  secured  for  trial  in  the  District  of  Washington, 
order  him  to  be  committed  to  the  public  gaol. 

The  judge's  authority  wa.s  to  be  exercised  after 
he  had  examined  the  "affidavits  of  credible  per- 
sons. "  Campbell's  judicial  opinion  seems  to  have 
been  that  any  affidavit  wjmn.sl  "the  said  John 


SEVIER,  THE  STATEMAKER  241 

Sevier"  could  not  be  made  by  a  "credible  p«Ts«n. " 
He  refused  to  issue  the  warrant.  Tiplon'H  tr'ivtul 
Spencer,  who  had  been  North  Cnroh'na's  judge 
of  the  Superior  Court  in  the  West  and  who  was 
sharing  that  honor  now  with  Campbell,  issued  the 
warrant  and  sent  Tipton  to  make  the  arn'st. 

Sevier  was  at  the  Widow  Brown's  inn  with  some 
of  his  men  when  Tipton  at  last  came  up  with  him. 
It  was  early  morning.    Tipton  and  his  ,)osse  were 
about  to  enter  when  the  portly  and  dauntless 
widow,  surmising  their  errand,  drew  her  chair  into 
the  doorway,  plumped  herself  down  in  it,  and  re- 
fused to  budge  for  all  the  writs  in  North  Carolin.i. 
Tipton  blustered  and  the  widow  r<Kked.    The  al- 
tercation awakened  Sevier.    He  dressed  hurriedly 
and  came  down.    As  soon  as  he  presented  himself 
on  the  porch.  Tipton  thrust  his  pistol  against  his 
body,  evidently  with  intent  to  fire  if  Sevier  made 
signs  of  resistance.    Sevier's  furious  followers  were 
not  disposed  to  let  him  be  taken  without  a  fight, 
but  he  admonished  them  to  respect  the  law,  and  re- 
quested  that  they  would  inform  Bonnie  Kate  of  his 
predicament.   Then,  debonair  as  ever,  with  perhaps 
a  tinge  of  contempt  at  the  corners  of  his  mouth,  he 
held  out  his  wrists  for  the  manacles  which  Tipton 
insisted  on  fastening  upon  them. 


I6 


/ 


a 


u 


Ui  nONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

It  was  not  likely  that  any  jail  in  the  western  coun- 
try could  hold  Nolichiirky  Jack  overnight.  Tipton 
feared  a  riot ;  and  it  was  decided  to  send  the  prisoner 
for  incarceration  and  trial  to  Moi^ntown  in  North 
Carolina,  just  over  the  hills. 

Tipton  did  not  accompany  the  guards  he  sent 
with  Sevier.  It  was  stated  and  commonly  believed 
that  he  had  given  instructions  of  which  the  ?  otior- 
able  men  among  his  friends  were  ignorant.  When 
the  party  entered  the  mountains,  two  of  the  guards 
were  to  lag  behind  with  the  prisoner,  till  the  others 
were  out  of  sight  on  the  twisting  trail.  Then  one 
of  the  two  was  to  kill  Sevier  and  assert  that  he  had 
done  it  becau.se  Sevier  had  attempted  to  escape. 
It  fell  out  almost  as  planned,  except  that  the  other 
guard  warned  Sevier  of  the  fate  in  store  for  him 
and  gave  him  a  chance  to  flee.  In  plunging  down 
the  mountain,  Sevier's  horse  was  entangled  in 
a  thicket.  The  would-be  murderer  overtook  him 
and  fired;  but  here  again  fate  had  interposed  for 
her  favorite.  The  ball  had  dropped  out  of  Ihe 
assassin's  pistol.  So  Sevier  reached  Morgantown 
in  safety  and  was  deposited  in  care  of  the  sheriff, 
who  was  doubtless  cautioned  to  take  a  good  look 
at  the  prisoner  and  know  him  for  a  dangerous  and 
a  daring  man. 


SEVIER,  THE  STATEM^KER  «4fJ 

There  in  a  story  to  the  .ffwl  that,  when  Sevier 
was  arraigned  in  the  courthouHe  at  Morgantown 
and  prenently  dashed  through  tfie  door  and  uway 
on  a  racer  that  had  been  hrou;<hl  u[>  hy  some  of  his 
friends,  among  those  who  witnessed  the  proceed- 
ings was  a  young  Ulster  Scot  named  Andrew  Jack- 
son; and  that  on  this  occasion  these  two  men.  later 
to  become  foes,  first  saw  each  oth«r.    Jackson  may 
have  been  in  Morgantown  at  the  time,  though  this 
is  dispute*!;  but  the  rest  of  the  tah'  is  pure  legend 
invented  by  someone  whose  love  of  thespectmiilar 
led  him  far  from  the  facts.    The  facts  are  hss  the- 
atrical  but  much  more  dramatic.    Sevier  was  not 
arraigned  at  all,  for  no  court  was  sitting  in  Mor- 
gantown at  the  time. '     The  sheriff  to  whom  he  was 
delivered  did  not  need  to  look  twice  at  him  to  know 
him  for  a  daring  man.    He  had  served  with  him  at 
King's  Mountain.    He  struck  off  his  handcuffs  and 
set  him  at  liberty  at  once.    Perhaps  he  also  notified 
General  Charles  McDowell  at  his  home  in  Quaker 
Meadows  of  the  presence  of  a  distinguished  guest 
in  Burke  County,  for  McDowell  and  his  brother 
Joseph,  another  oflScer  of  militia,  quickly  appeared 
and  wcLc  on  Sevier's  bond.    Nolichucky  Jack  was 

'  SUtement  by  John  Sevier.  Junior,  io  the  Draper  MSS..  quote.!  by 
I  urner,  Ltft  of  General  John  Setier,  p.  I8i. 


J 


MICROCOPY   RESOIUTION   TEST   CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


I.I 


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A    APPLIED  IN/MGE 


165J  Eosl  Main  Street 

(716)  482  -  0300  -  Phone 
(716)  288-5989  -Fa, 


844  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
presently  holding  a  court  of  his  own  in  the  tavern, 
with  North  Carolina's  men  at  arms  — as  many  as 
were  within  call— drinking  his  health.  So  his  sons 
and  a  company  of  his  Wataugans  found  him.  when 
they  rode  into  Morgantown  to  give  evidence  in  his 
behalf  —  with  their  rifles.  Since  none  now  disputed 
the  way  with  him,  Sevier  turned  homeward  with  his 
cavalcade,  McDowell  and  his  men  accompanying 
him  as  far  as  the  pass  in  the  hills. 

No  further  attempt  was  made  to  try  John  Sevier 
for  treason,  either  west  or  east  of  the  mountains. 
In  November,  however,  the  Assembly  passed  the 
Pardon  Act,  and  thereby  granted  absolution  to 
every  one  who  had  been  associated  with  the  State 
of  Franklin,  except  John  Sevier.  In  a  clause  said  to 
have  been  introduced  by  Tipton,  now  a  senator,  or 
suggested  by  him,  John  Sevier  was  debarred  for- 
ever from  "  the  enjoyment  of  any  oflSce  of  profit  or 
honor  or  trust  in  the  .State  of  North  Carolina. " 

The  overhill  men  in  Greene  County  took  due 
note  of  the  Assembly's  fiat  and  at  the  next  election 
sent  Sevier  to  the  North  Carolina  Senate.  Noli- 
chucky  Jack,  whose  demeanor  was  never  so  deco- 
rous as  when  the  ill-considered  actions  of  those  in 
authority  had  made  him  appear  to  have  circum- 
vented the  law,  considerately  waited  outside  until 


1  \ 


SEVIEil.  THE  STATEMAKER  245 

the  House  had  lifted  the  ban  —  which  it  aid  per- 
force and  by  a  large  majority,  despite  Tipton's 
opposition  —  and  then  took  his  seat  on  the  sena- 
torial bench  beside  ?iis  enemy.  The  records  show 
that  he  was  reinstated  as  Brigadier  General  of  the 
Western  Counties  and  also  appointed  at  the  head 
of  the  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs. 


V  ;i 


Not  only  in  the  region  about  Watauga  did  the 
pioneers  of  Tennessee  endure  the  throes  of  danger 
and  strife  during  these  years.     The  little  settle- 
ments on  the  Cumberland,  which  were  scattered 
over  a  short  distance  of  about  twenty-five  or  thirty 
miles  and  had  a  frontier  line  of  two  hundred  miles, 
were  terribly  afflicted.    Their  nearest  white  neigh- 
bors among  the  Kentucky  settlers  were  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  away;  and  through  the  crudest 
years  these  could  render  no  aid  —  could  not,  in- 
deed, hold  their  own  stations.    The  Kentuckians, 
as  we  have  seen,  were  bottled  up  in  Harrodsburg 
and  Boonesborough;  and,  while  the  northern  In- 
dians led  by  Girty  and  Dequindre  darkened  the 
Bloody  Ground  anew,  the  Cumberlanders  were 
making  a  desperate  stand  against  the  Chickasaws 
and  the  Creeks.    So  terrible  was  their  situation 
th  ' »  panic  took  hold  on  them,  and  they  would  have 


i 


M 


w 


246  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

fled  but  for  the  influence  of  Robertson.  He  may 
have  put  the  question  to  them  in  the  biblical  words, 
"  Whither  shall  I  flee?  "  For  they  were  surrounded, 
and  those  who  did  attempt  to  escape  were  "  weighed 
on  the  path  and  made  light."  Robertson  knew 
that  their  only  chance  of  survival  was  to  stand 
their  ground.  The  greater  risks  he  was  willing  to 
take  in  person,  for  it  was  he  who  made  trips  to 
Boonesborough  and  Harrodsburg  for  a  share  of  the 
powder  and  lead  which  John  Sevier  was  sending 
into  Kentucky  from  time  to  time.  In  the  stress  of 
conflict  Robertson  bore  his  full  share  of  grief,  for 
his  two  elder  sons  and  his  brother  fell.  He  himself 
was  often  near  to  death.  One  day  he  was  cut  oflF 
in  the  fields  and  was  shot  in  the  foot  as  he  ran, 
yet  he  managed  to  reach  shelter.  There  is  a  story 
that,  in  an  attack  during  one  of  his  absences,  the 
Indians  forced  the  outer  gate  of  the  fort  and 
Mrs.  Robertson  went  out  of  her  cabin,  firing,  and 
let  loose  a  band  of  the  savage  dogs  which  the  set- 
tlers kept  for  their  protection,  and  so  drove  out 
the  invaders. 

The  Chickasaws  were  loyal  to  the  treaty  they 
had  made  with  the  British  in  the  early  days  of 
James  Adair's  association  with  them.  They  were 
friends  to  England's  friends  and  foes  to  her  foes. 


I- 


JAMES  ROBERTSON 


„PMnut  Iqr  Wjlddiigton  B.  Cooper.  Nwdivffle.  lb  the  obOwtioa 
el  tbe  TinUMMes  ffiitork-al  Society.  Pbotognpli  in  t)w  eidlect|ioa» 
of  AMtaOald  B«deno*. 


■Xi 


-'I 


-•f 


n^ 


(I 


'f*     ' 


Hi 


1 

IHh 

i" 

4-'' 

■4 


SEVIER,  THE  STATRMAKER  247 

Whih-  they  resented  the  new  settlements  mudr  on 
land  they  considered  theirs,  they  signed  a  peace 
with  Robertson  at  the  conclusion  of  the  War  of 
Independence.    They  kept  their  word  with  hin.  as 
they  had  kept  it  with  the  British.    Furthermore, 
their  chief,  Opimingo  or  the  Mountain  Leader, 
gave  Robertson  his  assistance  against  the  Creeks 
and  the  Choctaws  and,  in  so  far  as  he  understood 
its  workings,  informed  him  of  the  new  Spanish  and 
French  conspiracy,  which  we  now  come  to  consider. 
So  once  again  the  Chicka.saws  were  servants  of 
destiny  to  the  English-speaking  race,  for  again 
they  drove  the  wedge  of  their  honor  into  an  Indian 
solidarity  welded  with  European  gold. 

Since  it  was  generally  believed  at  that  date  that 
the  tribes  were  instigated  to  war  by  the  British 
and  supplied  by  them  with  their  ammunition,  sav- 
age inroads  were  expected  to  cease  with  the  signing 
of  peace.  But  Ir  J"  -  -  arfare  not  only  continued; 
it  increased.    Ii,  .  two  years  of  the  Revo- 

lution, when  th  ]  .,  were  driven  from  the 
Back  Country  of  tne  Caroiinas  and  could  no  longer 
reach  the  tribes  with  consignments  of  firearms 
and  powder,  it  should  have  been  evident  that 
the  Indians  had  other  sources  of  supply  and  other 
allies,  for  they  lacked  nothing  which  could  aid 


>'* 


1 


:(■: 


\, 


il'^ 


7i 

I'll* 


248  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

them  in  their  efforts  to  exterminate  the  settler! 
of  Tennessee. 

Neither  France  nor  Spain  wished  to  see  an  Eng 
lish-speaking  republic  based  on  ideals  of  democ- 
racy successfully  established  in  America.    Though 
in  the  Revolutionary  War,  France  was  a  close  allj 
of  the  Americans  and  Spain  something  more  than 
a  nominal  one,  the  secret  diplomacy  of  the  courts 
of  the  Bourbon  cousins  ill  matched  with  their 
open  professions.     Both  cousins  hated  England. 
The  American  colonies,  smarting  under  injustice, 
had  offered  a  field  for  their  revenge.    But  hatred 
of  England  was  not  the  only  reason  why  activities 
had  been  set  afoot  to  increase  the  discord  which 
should  finally  separate  the  colonies  from  Great  Brit- 
ain and  leave  the  destiny  of  the  colonies  to  be  de- 
cided by  the  House  of  Bourbon.   Spt  in  saw  in  the 
Americans,  with  their  English  modes  of  thought, 
a  menace  to  her  authority  in  her  own  colonies  on 
both  the  northern  and  southern  continents.    This 
menace  would  not  be  stilled  but  augmented  if  the 
colonies  should  be  established  as  a  republic.  Such 
an  example  might  be  too  readily  followed.   Though 
France  had,  by  a  secret  treaty  in  1762,  made  over 
to  Spain  the  province  of  Louisiana,  she  was  not 
unmindful  of  the  Bourbon  motto,  "He  who  attacks 


w 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  840 

the  Crown  of  one  attacks  the  other. "   And  she  saw 
her  chance  to  deal  a  crippling  blow  at  England's 
1.    prestige  and  commerce. 

In  1764,  the  French  Minister,  Choiseul.  had  sent 
a  secret  agent,  named  Pontleroy  to  /  merica  to  as- 
sist in  making  trouble  and  to  watch  for  any  signs 
that  might  be  turned  to  the  advantage  of  les  deux 
couronnes.   Evidently  Pontleroy's  reports  were  en- 
couraging for,  in  1768,  Johann  Kalb-the  same 
Kalb  who  fell  at  Camden  in  1780  —  arrived  in  Phil- 
adelphia to  enlarge  the  good  work.     He  was  not 
only,  like  several  of  the  foreign  officers  in  the  War 
of  Independence,  a  spy  for  his  Government,  but  he 
was  also  the  special  emissary  of  one  Comte  de  Brog- 
lie  who,  after  the  colonies  had  broken  with  the 
mother  country,  was  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
American  affairs.    This  BrogKe  had  been  for  years 
one  of  Louis  XV's  chief  agents  in  subterranean 
diplomacy,  and  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  he 
Av.d  going  to  attempt  the  stupendous  task  of 
controlling  America's  destin;      ithout  substantial 
backing.    Spain  had  been  a   .ised  meanwhile  to 
rule  her  new  Louisiana  territory  with  great  liber- 
ality —  in  fact,  to  let  it  shine  as  a  republic  before 
the  yearning  eyes  of  the  oppressed  Americans,  so 
that  the  English  colonists  would  arise  and  cast  off 


H 

X    > 


.f'[ 


iGO  PIONEERS  OK  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
their  fetters.  Once  the  colonies  had  freed  theni- 
selves  from  England's  protecting  arm.  it  would  be 
a  si'nple  matter  for  the  Bourbons  to  gather  them  in 
ale  so  many  little  lost  chicks  from  a  rainy  yard. 
'  'he  intrigants  of  autocratic  systems  have  never 
been  able  to  understand  thai  the  urge  of  the  spirit 
of  independence  in  men  is  not  primarily  to  break 
shackles  but  to  stand  alone  and  that  the  breaking 
of  bonds  is  incidental  to  the  true  demonstration  of 
freedom.  The  Bourbons  and  their  agents  were  no 
more  nor  less  blind  to  the  great  principle  stirring 
the  hearts  of  men  in  their  day  than  were  the  Prus- 
sianized hosts  over  a  hundred  years  later  who,  hav- 
ing themselves  no  acquaintance  with  the  law  of 
liberty,  could  not  foresee  that  half  a  world  would 
rise  in  arms  to  maintain  that  law. 

When  the  War  of  Independence  had  ended,  the 
French  Minister,  Vergennes,  and  the  Spanish  Min- 
ister, Floridablanca,  secretly  worked  in  unison  to 
prevent  Englar.d's  recognition  of  the  new  republic; 
and  Floridablanca  in  1782  even  offered  to  assist 
England  if  she  would  make  further  efforts  to  sub- 
due her  "rebel  subjects. "  Both  Latin  powers  had 
their  own  axes  to  grind,  and  America  was  to  tend 
the  grindstone.  France  l«jr'  -i  for  recovery  of  her 
old  prestige  in  Europe  and  expected  to  supersede 


I; 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  m 

England  in  co.nmerce.    She  would  do  this,  in  the 
beginning,  chiefly  through  control  of  America  and 

ofAmerica'scommerce.  Vergennesthereforesought 
not  only  to  dictate  the  final  terms  of  peace  but  also 
:o  say  what  the  American  commissioners  should 
and  should  not  demand.    Of  the  latter  gentle- 
men  he  said  that  they  possessed  *' caracth-e.f  peu 
maniahUar    In  writing  to  Luzerne,  the  French 
Ambassador  in  Philadelphia,  on  October  14,  178«. 
Vergennes  said:  "it  behooves  us  to  leave  them 
[the  American  commissioners]  to  i   eir  illusions, 
to  do  everything  that  can  make  them  fancy  that 
we  share  them,  and  undertake  only  to  defeat  any 
attempts  to  which  those  illusions  might  carry  them 
if  our  cooperation  is  required."    Among  these 
"illusions"  were  America's  desires  in  regard  to  the 
fisheries  and  to  the  western  territory.    Concern- 
ing  the  West,  Vergennes  had  written  to  Luzerne 
a  1  early  as  July  18, 1780:    "At  the  moment  when 
the  revolution  broke  out,  the  limits  of  the  Thir- 
teen States  did  not  reach  the  River  [Mississippi] 
and  it  would  be  absurd  for  them  to  clain.  tixe 
rights  of  England,  a  power  whose  rule  they  had 
abjured."  By  the  secret  treaty  with  Spain,  further- 
more,  France  had  agreed  to  continue  the  war  until 
Gibraltar  should  be  taken,  and  —  if  the  British 


I  V  ) 


ii 


5  n 


tVii 


252  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

should  be  driven  from  Newfoundland  —  to  share 
the  fisheries  only  with  Spain,  and  to  support  Spain 
in  demanding  that  the  Thirteen  States  renounce  all 
territory  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  The  American 
States  must  by  no  means  achieve  a  genuine  inde- 
pendence but  must  feel  the  need  of  sureties,  allies, 
and  protection. ' 

So  intent  was  Vergennes  on  these  aims  that  he 
sent  a  secret  emissary  to  England  to  further  them 
there.  This  act  of  his  perhaps  gave  the  first  ink- 
ling to  the  English  statesmen^  that  American  and 
French  desires  were  not  identical  and  hastened 
England's  recognition  of  American  independence 
and  her  agreement  to  American  demands  in  regard 
to  the  w  estem  territory.  When,  to  his  amazement, 
Vergennes  learned  that  England  had  acceded  to 
all  America's  demands,  he  said  that  England  had 
"bought  the  peace"  rather  than  made  it.  The 
policy  of  Vergennes  in  regard  to  America  was  not 
unjustly  pronounced  by  a  later  French  statesman 
"a  vile  speculation. " 

'  See  John  Jay,  On  the  Peace  Negotiations  of  1782-17 8S  as  Illustrated 
by  the  Secret  Correspondence  of  France  and  England,  New  York,  1888. 

' "  Your  Lordship  was  well  founded  in  your  suspicion  that  the  grant- 
ing of  independence  to  America  a  s  %  previous  measure  is  a  point  which 
the  French  have  by  no  means  at  heart  and  perhaps  are  entirely  averse 
from."    Letter  from  Fitzherbert  to  Grantham,  September  3, 1782. 


SEVIER,  THE  STATEMAKER  253 

Through  England's  unexpected  action,  then,  the 
Bourbon  cousins  had  forever  lost  their  opportunity 
to  dominate  the  young  but  spent  and  war-weak- 
ened Republic,  or  to  use  America  as  a  catspaw  to 
snatch  English  commerce  for  France.    It  was  plain, 
too,  that  any  frank  move  of  the  sort  would  range 
the  English  alongside  of  their  American  kinsmen. 
Since  American  Independence  was  an  accomplished 
fact  and  therefore  could  no  longer  be  prevented, 
the  present  object  of  the  Bourbon  cousins  was  to 
restrict  it.     The  Appalachian  Mountains  should 
be  the  western  limits  of  the  new  nation.    There- 
fore the  settlements  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
must  be  broken  up,  or  the  settlers  must  be  induced 
to  secede  from  the  Union  and  raise  the  Spanish 
banner.    The  latter  alternative  was  held  to  be 
preferable.    To  bring  it  about  the  same  methods 
were  to  be  continued  which  had  been  used  prior 
to  and  during  the  war  —  namely,  the  use  of  agents 
provocateurs  to  corrupt  the  ignorant  and  incite  the 
lawless,  the  instigation  of  Indian  massacres  to 
daunt  the  brave,  and  the  distribution  of  gold  to 
buy  the  avaricious. 

As  her  final  and  supreme  means  of  coercion, 
Spain  refused  to  America  the  right  of  navigation 
on  the  Mississippi  and  so  deprived  the  Westerners 


1)1 


P 


J   tl 


I  ■ 

^1; 


^i' 


f  . 


; 


i'l 


I'  -' 


254  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

of amarketfortheirproduce.  TheNorthern States 
having  no   immediate   use   for  the   Mississippi 
were  wiUing  to  placate  Spain  by  acknowledgin, 
her  monopoly  of  the  grtat  waterway.    But  Vir 
ginia  and  North  Carolina  were  determined  thai 
America  should  not.  by  congressional  enactment 
surrender  her  "natural  right";  and  they  cited  tht 
proposed  legislation  as  their  reason  for  refusing 
to  ratify  the  Constitution.   "The  act  which  aban- 
dons it  [the  right  of  navigation]  is  an  act  of  separa- 
tion between  the  eastern  and  western  country." 
Jefferson  realized  at  last.     "An  act  of  separation" 
—  that  point  had  long  been  very  clear  to  the  Latin 
sachems  of  the  Mississippi  Valley! 

Bounded  as  they  were  on  one  side  by  the  pre- 
cipitous mountains  and  on  the  other  by  the  south- 
ward flow  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributary,  the 
Ohio,  the  trappers  and  growers  of  corn  in  Kentucky 
and  western  Tennessee  regarded  New  Orleans  as 
their  logical  market,  as  the  wide  waters  were  their 
natural  route.  If  market  and  route  were  to  be 
closed  to  them,  their  commercial  advancement  was 
something  less  than  a  dream. 

In  1785,  Don  Estevan  Miro,  a  gentleman  of 
artful  and  winning  address,  became  Governor  of 
Louisiana  and  fountainhead  of  the  propaganda. 


« ^-  j_ 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  255 

He  wrote  benign  and  brotherly  epistles  to  James 
Robertson  of  the  Cumberland  and  to  His  Excel- 
lency of  Franklin,  suggesting  that  to  be  of  service 
to  them  was  his  dearest  aim  in  life;  and  at  the  same 
time  he  kept  the  southern  Indians  continually  on 
the  warpath.   When  Robertson  wrote  to  him  of  the 
Creek  and  Cherokee  depredations,  with  a  hint  that 
the  Spanish  might  have  some  responsibility  in  the 
matter,  Miro  replied  by  offering  the  Cumberlander 
a  safe  home  on  Spanish  territory  with  freedom  of 
religion  and  no  taxes.    He  disclaimed  stirring  up 
the  Indians.    He  had,  in  fact,  advised  Mr.  Mc- 
Gillivray,  chief  of  the  Creeks,  to  make  peace.    He 
would  try  again  what  he  could  do  with  Mr.  McGil- 
livray.   As  to  the  Cherokees,  they  resided  in  a  very 
distant  territory  and  he  was  not  acquainted  with 
them;  he  might  have  added  that  he  did  not  need 
to  be:  his  friend   McGillivray   was   the   potent 
personality  among  the  Southern  tribes. 

In  Alexander  McGillivray,  Miro  found  a  weapon 
fashioned  to  his  hand.  If  the  Creek  chiertain's 
figure  might  stand  as  the  symbol  of  treachery,  it  is 
none  the  less  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and  pa- 
thetic in  our  early  annals.  McGillivray,  it  will  be 
remembered,  was  the  son  of  Adair's  friend  Lachlan 
McGillivray,  the  trader,  and  a  Creek  woman  whose 


» 

i. 


'I 


•f." 


t .'. 


Mi 


/! 


II 


ft., 

^  'I 


f^t 


H 


:ii^ 


256  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

sire  had  been  a  French  oflScer.    A  brilliant  and 
beautiful  youth,  he  had  given  his  father  a  pride  in 
him  which  is  generally  denied  to  the  fathers  of  sons 
with  Indian  blood  in  them.    The  Highland  trader 
had  spared  nothing  in  his  son's  education  and  had 
placed  him,  after  his  school  days,  in  the  business 
office  of  the  large  trading  establishment  of  which 
he  himself  was  a  member.    At  about  the  age  of 
seventeen  Alexander  had  become  a  chieftain  in  his 
mother's  nation ;  and  doubtless  it  is  he  who  appears 
shortly  afterwards  in  the  Colonial  Records  as  the 
White  Leader  whose  influence  is  seen  to  have  been 
at  work  for  friendship  between  the  colonists  and 
the  tribes.    When  the  Revolutionary  War  broke 
out,  Lachlan  McGiliivray,  like  many  of  the  old 
traders  who  had  served  British  interests  so  long 
and  so  faithfully,  held  to  the  British  cause.    Geor- 
gia confiscated  all  his  property  and  Lachlan  fled  to 
Scotland.    For  this,  his  son  hated  the  people  of 
Georgia  with  a  perfect  hatred.    He  remembered 
how  often  his  father's  courage  alone  had  stood  be- 
tween those  same  people  and  the  warlike  Creeks. 
He  could  recall  the  few  days  in  1760  when  Lachlan 
and  his  fellow  trader,  Galphin,  at  the  risk  of  their 
lives  had  braved  the  Creek  warriors  —  already 
painted  for  war  and  on  the  march  —  and  so  had 


SEVIER.  THE  SfATEMAKER  «57 

saved  the  settlements  of  the  Back  Country  from 
extermination.  He  looked  upon  the  men  of  Georgia 
as  an  Indian  regards  those  who  forget  either  a 
blood  gift  or  a  blood  vengeance.  And  he  em- 
braced the  whole  American  nation  in  his  hatred  for 
their  sakes. 

In  1776  Alexander  McGillivray  was  in  his  early 
thirties  —  the  exact  date  of  his  birth  is  uncertain. ' 
He  had,  we  are  told,  the  tall,  sturdy,  but  spare 
physique  of  the  Gael,  with  a  countenance  of  Indian 
color  though  not  of  Indian  cast.    His  overhang, 
ing  brows  made  more  striking  his  very  large  and 
luminous  dark  eyes.    He  bore  himself  with  great 
dignity;  his  voice  was  soft,  his  manner  gentle.    He 
might  have  been  supposed  to  be  some  Latin  court- 
ier but  for  the  barbaric  display  of  ^is  dress  and  his 
ornaments.    He  possessed  extraordinary  personal 
magnetism,  and  his  power  extended  beyond  the 
Creek  nation  to  the  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws  and 
the  Southern  Cherokees.    He  had  long  been  wooed 
by  the  Louisiana  authorities,  but  there  is  no  evi- 
dence that  he  had  made  alliance  with  them  prior  to 
the  Revolution. 


a 


I  f} 


I: 
t 


^'\ 


,,1  J"i^*'l^.t'^?  ".*^  "  ^^"-  ^""^  "^^  P^*'  »789  and  others 
1746.  His  father  landed  in  Charleston.  Pickett  (Butory  of  Alabama) 
says,  in  1735,  and  was  then  only  sixteen. 

X7 


m 


'       f 


238  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Early  in  the  war  he  joined  the  British,  receivec 
a  colonel's  commission,  and  led  his  formidabh 
Creeks  against  the  people  of  Georgia.  When  th( 
British  were  driven  from  the  Back  Countries,  Mc- 
Gillivray,  in  his  British  uniform,  went  on  with  the 
war.  When  the  British  made  peace,  McGillivraj 
exchanged  his  British  uniform  for  a  Spanish  one 
and  went  on  with  the  war.  In  later  days,  when  he 
had  forced  Congress  to  pay  him  for  his  father's  con- 
fiscated property  and  had  made  peace,  he  wore  the 
uniform  of  an  American  Brigadier  General;  but  he 
did  not  keep  the  peace,  never  having  intended  to 
keep  it.  It  was  not  until  he  had  seen  the  Spanish 
plots  collapse  and  had  realized  that  the  Americans 
were  to  dominate  the  land,  that  the  White  Leader 
ceased  from  war  and  urged  the  youths  of  his  tribe 
to  adopt  American  civilization. 

Spent  from  hate  and  wasted  with  dissipation,  he 
retired  at  last  to  the  spot  where  Lachlan  had  set  up 
his  first  Creek  home.  Here  he  lived  his  few  re- 
maining days  in  a  house  which  he  built  on  the  site 
of  the  old  ruined  cabin  about  which  still  stood  the 
little  grove  of  apple  trees  his  father  had  planted. 
He  died  at  the  age  of  fifty  of  a  fever  contracted 
while  he  was  on  a  business  errand  in  Pensacola. 
Among  those  who  visited  him  in  his  last  years,  one 


■  I 

■  t 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  2.59 

has  left  this  description  of  him:  "Dissipation  has 
sapped  a  constitution  originally  delicate  and  feeble. 
He  possesses  an  atticism  of  diction  aided  by  a 
liberal  education,  a  great  fund  of  wit  and  humor 
meliorated  by  a  perfect  good  nature  and  polite- 
ness." Set  beside  that  kindly  picture  this  rough 
etching  by  James  Robertson:  "The  biggest  devil 
among  them  [the  Spaniards]  is  the  half  Spaniard 
half  Frenchman,  half  Scotchman  and  altogether 
Creek  scoundrel,  McGillivray. " 

How  indefatigably  McGillivray  did  his  work  we 
know  from  the  bloody  annals  of  the  years  which 
followed  the  British-American  peace,  when  the 
men  of  the  Cumberland  and  of  Franklin  were 
on  the  defensive  continually.     How  cleverly  Mir6 
played  his  personal  rdle  we  discover  in  the  letters 
addressed  to  him  by  Sevier  and  Robertson.    These 
letters  show  that,  as  far  as  words  go  at  any  rate, 
the  founders  of  Tennessee  were  willing  to  negotiate 
with  Spain.   In  a  letter  dated  September  12,  1788. 
Sevier  offered  himself  and  his  tottering  State  of 
Franklin  to  the  Spanish  King.   This  offer  may  have 
been  made  to  gain  a  respite,  or  it  may  have  been 
genuine.     The  situction  in  the  Tennessee  settle- 
ments  was  truly  desperate,  for  neither  North  Caro- 
Una  nor  Congress  apparently  cared  in  the  least 


'  ,♦>* 


r 


i\ 


,>»'ii 


'.      y.     .4    1 


11 

lit 


260  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

what  befell  them  or  how  soon.  North  Carolina  in- 
deed was  in  an  anomalous  position,  as  she  had  not 
yet  ratified  the  Federal  Constitution.  If  Frank- 
lin  went  out  of  existence  and  the  territory  which 
it  included  became  again  part  of  North  Caro- 
lina, Sevier  knew  that  a  large  part  of  the  newly 
settled  country  would,  under  North  Carolina's  trea- 
ties, revert  to  the  Indians.  That  meant  ruin  to 
large  numbers  of  those  who  had  put  their  faith  in 
his  star,  or  else  it  meant  renewed  conflict  either 
with  the  Indians  or  with  the  parent  State.  The 
probabilities  are  that  Sevier  hoped  to  play  the 
Spaniards  against  the  Easterners  who,  even  while 
denying  the  Westerners*  contention  that  the  moun- 
tains were  a  "natural"  barrier  between  them,  were 
making  of  them  a  barrier  of  indifiference.  It  would 
seem  so,  because,  although  this  was  the  very  aim 
of  all  Miro's  activities  so  that,  had  he  been  assured 
of  the  sincerity  of  the  ofiFer,  he  must  have  grasped 
at  it,  yet  nothing  definite  was  done.  And  Sevier 
was  presently  informing  Shelby,  now  in  Kentucky, 
that  there  was  a  Spanish  plot  afoot  to  seize  the 
western  country. 

Miro  had  other  agents  besides  McGillivray  — 
who,  by  the  way,  was  costing  Spain,  for  his  own 
services  and  those  of  four  tribes  aggregating  over 


\Ui 


SEVIER,  THE  STATEMAKER  261 

six  thousand  warriors,  a  sum  of  fifty-five  thousand 
dollars  a  year.   McGillivray  did  very  well  as  super- 
intendent  of  massacres;  but  the  Spaniard  required 
a  different  type  of  man,  an  American  who  enjoyed 
his  country's  trust,  to  bring  the  larger  plan  to 
fruition.    Mir6  found  that  man  in  General  James 
Wilkinson,  lately  of  the  Continental  Army  and 
now  a  resident  of  Kentucky,  which  territory  Wil- 
kinson undertook  to  deliver  to  Spain,  for  a  price. 
In  1787  Wilkinson  secretly  took  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  Spain  and  is  listed  in  the  files  of  the 
Spanish  secret  service,  appropriately,  as  "Number 
Thirteen. "   He  was  indeed  the  thirteenth  at  table, 
the  Judas  at  the  feast.    Somewhat  under  middle 
height,  Wilkinson  was  handsome,  graceful,  and 
remarkably  magnetic.    Of  a  good,  if  rather  im- 
poverished, Maryland  family,  he  was  well  educated 
and  widely  read  for  the  times.    With  a  brilliant 
and  versatile  intellectuality  and  ready  gifts  as  a 
speaker,  he  swayed  men  easily.    He  was  a  bold 
soldier  and  was  endowed  with  physical  courage, 
though   when   engaged   in   personal   contests   he 
seldom  exerted  it  —  preferring  the  red  tongue  of 
slander  or  the  hired  assassin's  shot  from  behind 
cover.    His  record  fails  to  disclose  one  commend- 
able trait.     He  was  inordinately  avaricious,  but 


1  1 1" 


fL 


V 


,  )'  Si; 


i^: 


\u  ■ 

MM 


seose  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

love  of  money  was  not  his  whole  motive  force:  h< 
had  a  spirit  so  jealous  and  malignant  that  he  hatec 
to  the  death  another  man's  good.  H?  seemed  t( 
divine  instantly  wherein  other  men  were  weal 
and  to  understand  the  speediest  and  best  mcani 
of  suborning  them  to  his  own  interests  —  or  ol 
destroy   ig  them. 

Wilkinson  was  able  to  lure  a  number  of  Ken 
tuckians  into  the  separatist  movement.  Georg< 
Rogers  Clark  seriously  disturbed  the  arch  plottei 
by  seizing  a  Spanish  trader's  store  wherewith  t< 
pay  his  soldiers,  whom  Virginia  had  omitted  t( 
recompense.  This  act  aroused  the  suspicions  ol 
the  Spanish,  either  as  to  Number  Thirteen's  per 
feet  loyalty  or  as  to  his  ability  to  deliver  the  west 
ern  country .  In  1786,  when  Clark  led  two  thousanc 
men  against  the  Ohio  Indians  in  his  last  and  hi: 
only  unsuccessful  campaign,  Wilkinson  had  al 
ready  settled  nimself  near  the  Falls  (Louisville)  anr 
had  looli'.'d  about  for  mischief  which  he  mighi 
do  for  profit.  Whether  his  influence  had  anything 
to  do  with  what  amounted  virtually  to  a  mutiny 
among  Clark's  forces  is  not  ascertainable;  but,  fo; 
a  disinterested  onlooker,  he  was  overswif  t  to  sprea( 
the  news  of  Clark's  debacle  and  to  declare  gleefull; 
that  Clark's  sun  of  military  glory  had  now  foreve 


:  « 


SEVL.a,  THE  STATEMAKKR  203 

«et.  It  is  also  known  thot  he  later  s.-mtl  othtr 
generals  treacherously  in  Indian  expfditions  and 
that  he  intrigued  with  Mad  Anthony  Wayne's 
Kentucky  troops  against  their  commander. 

Spain  did  not  wish  to  se«.  the  Indians  crushH; 
and  Wilkinson  himself  both  hated  and  feared       * 
other  officer's  prestige.    How  long  he  had  been  in 
foreign  pay  we  can  ual^  ccnjecture.  for.  sev.-ral 
years  before  he  transplanted  his  activities  to  Ken- 
tucky, he  had  been  one  of  a  cabal  against  Wash- 
ington.    Not  only  his  ambitions  liut  his  nature 
must  inevitably  have  brought  him  to  the  death- 
battle  with  George  Refers  Clark.    As  a  military 
leader,  Clark  had  genius,  and  soldiering  was  his 
passion.    In  nature,  he  was  open,  frank,  and  bold 
to  make  foes  if  he  scorned  a  man's  way  as  ignoble 
or  dishonest.    Wilkinson  suavely  set  about  schem- 
ing  for  Clark's  ruin,   his  communication  or  memo- 
rial to  the  Virginia  Assembly  -  signed  by  himself 
and  a  number  of  his  friends  —  villifying  Clark, 
ended  Clark's  chances  for  the  commission  in  the 
Continental  Army  which  he  craved.    It  was  Wil- 
kinson who  made  public  an  incriminating  letter 
which  had  Clark's  si/,   ature  attached  and  which 
Clark  said  he  had  never  seen.    It  is  to  be  supposed 
that  Number  Thirteen  was  responsible  also  for 


I-  M. 


I ; 


204  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  malevolent  anonymous  letter  accusing  Clark 
of  (IrunkcnnesH  and  achemiog  which,  so  strangely, 
ftmiul  itH  way  into  the  Calendar  of  State  Papers  of 
Virginia. '  As  u  result,  Clark  was  censured  by  Vir- 
ginia. Thereuiwn  he  |)etitioned  for  a  Court  of  In- 
quiry, but  this  was  not  granted.  Wilkinson  had  to 
get  rid  of  Clark;  for  if  Clark,  with  his  military  gifts 
and  his  power  over  men,  had  been  elevated  to  a 
position  of  command  under  the  smile  of  the  Govern- 
ment, there  would  have  been  small  opportunity 
for  James  Wilkinson  to  lead  the  Kentuckians  and 
to  gather  in  Spanish  gold.  So  the  machinations  of 
one  of  the  vilest  traitors  who  ever  sold  his  country 
were  employed  to  bring  about  the  stultification 
and  hence  the  downfall  of  a  great  servant. 

Wilkinson's  chief  aids  were  the  Irishmen,  O'Fal- 
lon,  Nolan,  and  Powers.  Through  Nolan,  he  also 
vended  Spanish  secrets.  He  sold,  indeed,  what- 
ever and  whomever  he  could  get  his  price  for.  So 
clever  was  he  that  he  escaped  detection,  though 
he  was  obliged  to  remove  some  suspicions.  He 
succeeded  W^ayno  us  commander  of  the  regular 
arriy  in  1796.    He  was  one  of  the  commissioners 

■  See  Thomas  M.  Greene's  The  Spanish  Contpiracy,  p.  78,  footnote. 
It  is  possible  that  Wilkinson's  intrigues  provide  data  for  a  new  biog- 
raphy of  Clark  whicl  nuiy  recast  in  some  measure  the  accepted  view 
of  Clark  at  this  period. 


k 


i    y 


SEVIER.  THE  STATt'MAKER  865 

to  receive  Louisiana  when  the  Purchasie  was  ar- 
ranged in  1803.  He  was  still  on  the  Spanish  pay 
roll  at  that  time.  Wilkinson's  true  record  came  to 
light  only  when  the  Spanish  archives  were  opened 
to  investigators. 

There  were  British  agents  also  in  the  Old  South- 
west, for  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Western  men 
inspired  in  Englishmen  the  hope  of  recovering  the 
Mississippi  Basin.  Lord  Dorchester.  Governor  of 
Canada,  wrote  to  the  British  Government  that  he 
had  been  approached  by  important  Westerners;  but 
he  received  advice  from  England  to  move  slowly. 
For  comph'city  in  the  British  schemes,  William 
Eiouat,  who  was  Ilrst  territorial  Governor  of  Ten- 
nessee anu  later  a  senator  from  that  State,  was 
expelled  from  the  Senate. 

Surely  there  was  never  a  more  elaborate  network 
of  plots  that  came  to  nothing!  The  concession  to 
Americans  in  96  of  Ihe  right  of  navigation  on  the 
Mississippi  brought  an  end  to  the  scheming. 


n 


In  the  same  year  Tennessee  was  admitted  to  the 
Union,  and  John  Sevier  was  elected  Governor.  Se- 
vier's popularity  was  undiminished,  though  there 
were  at  this  time  some  sixty  thousand  souls  in 
Tennessee,  many  of  whom  were  late  comers  who 


fli' 


266  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

had  not  known  him  in  his  heyday.  His  old  power 
to  win  men  to  him  must  have  been  as  strong  as 
ever,  for  it  is  recorded  that  he  had  only  to  enter 
a  political  meeting  —  no  matter  whose  —  for  the 
crowd  to  cheer  him  and  shout  for  him  to  "give 
them  a  talk. " 

This  adulation  of  Sevier  still  annoyed  a  few  men 
who  had  ambitions  of  their  own.  Among  these  was 
Andrew  Jackson,  who  had  come  to  Jonesborough 
in  1788,  just  after  the  collapse  of  the  State  of 
Franklin.  He  was  twenty-one  at  that  time,  and 
he  is  said  to  have  entered  Jonesborough  riding 
a  fine  racer  and  leading  another,  with  a  pack  of 
hunting  dogs  baying  or  nosing  along  after  him.  A 
court  record  dated  May  12,  1788,  avers  that  "An- 
drew Jackson,  Esq.  came  into  Court  and  produced 
a  licence  as  an  Attorney  With  A  Certificate  suflB- 
ciently  Attested  of  his  Taking  the  Oath  Necessary 
to  said  oflSce  and  Was  admitted  to  Practiss  as  an 
Attorney  in  the  County  Courts."  Jackson  made 
no  history  in  old  Watauga  during  that  year.  Next 
year  he  moved  to  Nashville,  and  one  year  later, 
when  the  Superior  Court  was  established  (1790), 
he  became  prosecuting  attorney. 

The  feud  between  Jackson  and  Sevier  began 
about  the  time  that  Tennessee  entered  the  Union. 


r 


Hi 


HMB^A 


SEVIER,  THE  STATKMAKER  267 

Jackson,  then  twenty-nine,  was  defeated  for  the 
post  of  Major  General  of  the  Militia  through  the 
influence  which  Sevier  exercised  against  him,  and 
it  seems  that  Jackson  never  forgave  this  opposi- 
tion to  his  ambitions.  By  the  close  of  Sevier's  third 
term,  however,  in  1802,  when  Archibald  Roane  be- 
came Governor,the  post  of  Major  General  was  again 
vacant.  Both  Sevier  and  Jackson  oflfered  them- 
selves for  it,  and  Jackson  was  elected  by  the  decid- 
ing vote  of  the  Governor,  the  military  vote  having 
resulted  in  a  tie.  A  strong  current  of  influence 
had  now  set  in  against  Sevier  and  involved  charges 
ag''»inst  his  honor.  His  old  enemy  Tipton  was 
still  active.  The  basis  of  the  charges  was  a  file  of 
papers  from  the  entry-taker's  oflSce  which  a  friend 
of  Tipton's  had  laid  before  the  Governor,  with 
an  affidavit  to  the  effect  that  the  papers  were 
fraudulent.  Both  the  Governor  and  Jackson  be- 
lieved the  charges.  When  we  consider  what  sys- 
tem or  lack  of  system  of  land  laws  and  land  entries 
obtained  in  Watauga  and  such  primitive  com- 
munities —  when  a  patch  of  corn  sealed  a  right 
and  claims  wer«  made  by  notching  trees  with  toma- 
hawks —  we  may  imagine  that  a  file  from  the  land 
office  might  appear  easily  enough  to  smirch  a  land- 
holder's integrity.    The  scandal  was,  of  course, 


f  ^ 
•  H 


^'•>i 


■  I 


.'I 


=.* 


w  ■    < 


r.i 


W  '\ 


ft 


I 


i' 


268  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

used  in  an  attempt  to  ruin  Sevier's  candidacy  for 
a  fourth  term  as  Governor  and  to  make  certain 
Roane's  reflection.  To  this  end  Jackson  bent 
all  his  energies  but  without  success.  Nolichucky 
Jack  was  elected,  for  the  fourth  time,  as  Governor 
of  Tennessee. 

Not  long  after  his  inauguration,  Sevier  met  Jack- 
son in  Knoxville,  where  Jackson  was  holding  court. 
The  charges  against  Sevier  were  then  being  made 
the  subject  of  legislative  investigation  instituted 
by  Tipton,  and  Jackson  had  published  a  letter  in 
the  Knoxville  Gazette  supporting  them.  At  the  sight 
of  Jackson,  Sevier  flew  into  a  rage,  and  a  fiery 
altercation  ensued.  The  two  men  were  only  re- 
strained from  leaping  on  each  other  by  the  inter- 
vention of  friends.  The  next  day  Jackson  sent 
Sevier  a  challenge  which  Sevier  accepted,  but  with 
the  stipulation  that  the  duel  take  place  outside  the 
State.  Jackson  insisted  on  fighting  in  Knoxville, 
where  the  insult  had  been  oflfered.  Sevier  refused. 
"I  have  some  respect,"  he  wrote,  "for  the  laws  of 
the  State  over  which  I  have  the  honor  to  preside, 
although  you,  a  judge,  appear  to  hav«  none. "  No 
duel  followed;  but,  after  some  further  billets-d^ux, 
Jackson  published  Sevier  as  "a  base  coward  and 
poltroon.    He  will  basely  insult  but  has  not  the 


Ui 


littiM 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  269 

courage  to  repair  the  wound."  Again  they  met, 
by  accident,  and  Jackson  rushed  upon  Sevier  with 
his  cawe.  Sevier  dismounted  and  drew  his  pistol 
but  made  no  move  to  fire.  Jackson,  thereupon, 
also  drew  his  weapon.  Once  more  friends  ;..ter- 
fered.  It  is  presumable  that  neither  really  de- 
sired the  duel.  By  killing  Nolichucky  Jack,  Jack- 
son would  have  ended  his  own  career  in  Tennessee 
—  if  Sevier's  tribe  of  sons  had  not,  by  a  swifter 
means,  ended  it  for  him.  At  this  date  Jackson 
was  thirty-six.  Sevier  was  fifty-eight;  and  he  had 
seventeen  childr<  n. 

Th-^  charges  against  Sevier,  though  pressed  with 
all  t.  s  force  that  his  enemies  could  bring  to  bear, 
came  to  nothing.  He  remained  the  Governor  of 
Tennessee  for  another  six  years  —  the  three  terms 
in  eight  years  allowed  by  the  constitution.  In  181 1 
he  was  sent  to  Congress  for  the  second  time,  as  he 
had  represented  the  Territory  there  twenty  years 
earlier.  He  was  returned  again  in  1813.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  his  term  in  1815  he  went  into  the  Creek 
country  as  commissioner  to  determine  the  Creek 
boundaries,  and  here,  far  from  his  Bonnie  Kate  and 
his  tribe,  he  died  of  fever  at  the  age  of  seventy.  His 
body  was  buried  with  full  military  honors  at  Tucka- 
batchee,  one  of  the  Creek  towns.   In  1889,  Sevier's 


ill 
1 


ii  i\ 


I    i 


m 


♦  ■ 


II' 

J.' 


270  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

remains  were  removed  to  Knoxville  and  a  high 
marble  spire  was  raised  above  them. 

His  Indian  enemies  forgave  the  chastisement  he 
had  inflicted  on  them  and  honored  him.  In  times 
of  peace  they  would  come  to  him  frequently  for 
advice.  And  in  his  latter  days,  the  chiefs  would 
make  state  visits  to  his  home  on  the  Nolichucky 
River.  "John  Sevier  is  a  good  man"  —  so  de- 
clared the  Cherokee,  Old  Tassel,  making  himself 
the  spokesman  of  history. 

Sevier  had  survived  his  old  friend,  co-founder 
with  him  of  Watauga,  by  one  year.  James  Roh- 
ertson  had  died  in  1814  at  the  age  of  seventy-two, 
among  the  Chickasaws,  and  his  body,  like  that  of 
his  fellow  pioneer,  was  buried  in  an  Indian  town 
and  lay  there  until  1825,  when  it  was  removed 
to  Nashville. 


fi '  w 


11  ij 

I 


u-\ 


I 


1 1  ^  '      < 


What  of  the  red  tribes  who  had  fought  these 
great  pioneers  for  the  wide  land  of  the  Old  South- 
west and  who  in  the  end  had  received  their  dust 
and  treasured  it  with  honor  in  the  little  soil  re- 
maining to  them  ?  Always  the  new  boundary  lines 
drew  closer  in,  and  the  red  men's  foothold  nar- 
rowed before  the  pushing  tread  of  the  whites.  The 
day  came  soon  when  there  was  no  lonr'er  room  for 


1  1 


Am 


SEVIER.  THE  STATEMAKER  271 

them  in  the  land  of  their  fathers.   But  far  off  across 
the  great  river  there  was  a  land  the  white  men  did 
not  covet  yet.  Thither  at  last  the  tribes —Cherokee, 
Choctaw,    Chickasaw,   and    Creek  — took  their 
way.    With  wives  and  children,  maids  and  youths, 
the  old  and  the  young,  with  all  their  goods,  their 
cattle  and  horses,  in  the  company  of  a  regiment 
of  American  troops,  they  — like  the  white  men 
who  had  superseded  them  —  turned  westward.  In 
their  faces  also  was  the  red  color  of  the  west,  but 
not  newly  there.  From  the  beginning  of  their  race. 
Destiny  had  painted  them  with  the  hue  of  the  brief 
hovr  of  the  dying  sun. 


* 


i  ! 


•        I. 


i'"r\ 


CHAPTER  XI 


BOONE  8  LAST  DAYS 


mi.U 


One  spring  day  in  1799,  there  might  have  been 
observed  a  great  stir  through  the  valley  of  the 
Kanawha.  With  the  dawn,  men  were  ahorse,  and 
women,  too.  Wagons  crowded  with  human  freight 
wheeled  over  the  rough  country,  and  boats,  large 
and  small,  were  afloat  on  the  streams  which  pour 
into  the  Great  Kanawha  and  at  length  mingle  with 
the  Ohio  at  Point  Pleasant,  where  the  battle  was 
fought  which  opened  the  gates  of  Kentucky. 

Some  of  the  travelers  poured  into  the  little  settle- 
ment at  the  junction  of  the  Elk  and  the  Kanawha, 
where  Charleston  now  lies.  Others,  who  had  been 
later  in  starting  or  had  come  from  a  greater  dis- 
tance, gathered  along  the  banks  of  the  Kanawha. 
At  last  shouts  from  those  stationed  farthest  up  the 
stream  echoed  down  the  valley  and  told  the  rest 
that  what  they  had  come  out  to  see  was  at  hand. 

Several  pirogues  drifted  into  view  on  the  river, 

tit 


BOONE'S  LAST  DAYS  «7s 

now  brightening  in  the  sunshine.    In  the  vessels 
were  men  and  their  famihes;  bales  and  bundles  and 
pieces  of  household  furnishings,  heaped  to  the  gun- 
wale; a  few  cattle  and  horses  standing  patiently. 
But  it  was  for  one  man  above  all  that  the  e;.  'er 
eyes  of  the  settlers  were  watching,  and  him  they 
saw  clearly  as  his  boat  swung  by  -  a  tall  figure, 
erect  and  powerful,  his  keen  friendly  blue  eyes  un- 
dimmed  and  his  ruddy  face  unlined  by  time,  though 
sixty-five  winters  had  frosted  his  black  hair. 

For  a  decade  these  settlers  had  known  Daniel 
Boone,  as  storekeeper,  as  surveyor,  as  guide  and 
soldier.    They  had  eaten  of  the  game  he  killed  and 
lavishly  distributed.   And  they  too  -  like  the  folk 
of  Clinch  Valley  in  the  year  of  Dunmore's  War  — 
had  petitioned  Virginia  to  bestow  military  rank 
upon  their  protector.    "Lieutenant  Colonel"  had 
been  his  title  among  them,  by  their  demand.    Once 
indeed  he  had  represented  them  in  the  Virginia 
Assembly  and,  for  that  purpose,  trudged  to  Rich- 
mond  with  rifle  and  hunting  dog.    Not  interested 
m  the  Legislature's  proceedings,  he  left  early  in  the 
session  and  tramped  home  again. 

But  not  even  the  esteem  o*  friends  and  neighbors 
could  hold  the  great  hunter  when  the  deer  had  fled. 
So  Daniel  Boone  was  now  on  his  way  westward  to 


/    'li 


18 


t 


'V.I 


^M 


1 


ii 


^.  \  \ 


874  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Missouri,  to  a  new  land  of  fabled  herds  and  wku 
spaces,  where  the  hunter's  gun  might  speaV  ;t.' 
one  word  with  authority  and  where  the  soul  of  c 
silent  and  fearless  man  might  find  its  true  abode 
in  Nature's  solitude.  Waving  his  last  farewells,  h€ 
floated  past  the  little  groups  —  till  their  shouts  ol 
good  will  were  long  silenced,  and  his  fleet  swunf 
out  upon  the  Ohio. 

As  Boone  sailed  on  down  the  Beautiful  Rivei 
which  forms  the  northern  boundary  of  Kentucky 
old  friends  and  newcomers  who  had  only  heard  his 
fame  rode  from  far  and  near  to  greet  and  godspeec 
him  on  his  way.  Sometimes  he  paused  for  a  daj 
with  them.  Once  at  least  —  this  was  in  Cincinnat 
where  he  was  taking  on  supplies  —  some  one  aske< 
him  why,  at  his  age,  he  was  leaving  the  settled  coun 
try  to  dare  the  frontier  once  more. 

"Too  crowded,"  he  answered;  "I  want  mor 
elbow-room!" 

Boone  settled  at  the  Femme  Osage  Creek  on  th( 
Missouri  River,  twenty-five  miles  above  St.  Charles 
where  the  Missouri  flows  into  the  Mississippi.  Thcr 
were  four  other  Kentucky  families  at  La  Charette 
as  the  French  inhabitants  called  the  post,  but  thes 
were  the  only  Americans.  The  Spanish  authoritie 
granted  Boone  840  acres  of  land,  and  here  Danic 


',i»'T- 


.S5!!I^i.^»;?'.i<^5f?"*''  ?'?'.■  p"^^*y  **«■*«  luiding. 


■<1 


.1 1 

j 


/., 


*  I 


i    I  H 


,i 


In 


11 M 
11  ■ 

I'll 


I    i 


mx>NE'S  LAST  DAYS  j7.-j 

built  the  last  nihin  home  li<>  was  tomH-t  f(ir  himself 
and  his  RehtHH-a. 

The  r.«Kion  p|eas».c|  .liiii  iinnii'nsely.    Tl.,   nov. 
crnmental  systern.  for  in.stanre.  wan  wholly  to  his 
mind.    Taxes  were  infin'>esimal.    There  wen-  no 
eleftion.s.  assemblies,  or  me  like.    A  single  maKis- 
trate.  or  Syndie.  deeided  all  disputes  and  made  the 
few  regulations  and  enforced  them.     There  were 
no  land  speculators,  no  dry-mouthed  sons  of  H,,. 
commercial  Tantalus,  athirst  for  profits.     Boime 
used  to  .say  that  his  first  years  in  Mis.souri  were  th.. 
happiest  of  his  life,  with  the  exception  of  his  first 
long  hunt  in  Kentucky. 

In   1800  he  was  appointed  Syndic  of  the  dis- 
trict o:  Femme  Osage,  which  office  he  filled  for  four 
years,  until  Louisiana  became  American  territory 
He  was  held  in  high  esteem  as  a  magistrate  becau.se 
of  his  just  and  wise  treatment  of  his  flock,  who 
brought  him  all  their  small  bickering's  lo  settle 
He  had  no  use  for  legal  procedure,  wouhl  not  listen 
to  any  nice  subtleties,  saying  that  he  did  not  care 
anything  at  all  about  the  aidence,  what  he  wanted 
was  the  truth.    His  favorite  penalty  for  offenders 
was  the  hickory  rod  "well  laid  on. "    Often  he  de- 
eided that  both  parties  in  a  suit  were  equally  to 
blame  and  chastised  them  both  alike.     When  in 


A 


my  ' 

1  ■:  ^ 

1  '^V 

276  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

March,  1804,  the  American  Commissioner  received 
Louisiana  for  the  United  States,  Delassus,  Lieuten- 
ant Governor  of  Upper  Louisiana,  reporting  on 
the  various  oflBcials  in  the  territory,  wrote  of  the 
Femme  Osage  Syndic:  "Mr.  Boone,  a  respectable 
old  man,  just  and  impartial,  he  has  already,  since 
I  appointed  him,  offered  his  resignation  owing  to 
his  infirmities.  Believing  I  know  his  probity,  I 
have  induced  him  to  remain,  in  view  of  my  confi- 
dence in  him,  for  the  public  good. "' 

Daniel,  no  doubt  supposing  that  a  Syndic's 
rights  were  inviolable,  had  neglected  to  apply  to 
the  Governor  at  New  Orleans  for  a  ratification 
of  his  grant.  He  was  therefore  dispossessed.  Not 
until  1810,  and  after  he  had  enlisted  the  Kentucky 
Legislature  in  his  behalf,  did  he  succeed  in  induc- 
ing Congress  to  restore  his  land.  The  Kentucky 
Legislature's  resolution  was  adopted  because  of 
"the  many  eminent  services  rendered  by  Colonel 
Boone  in  exploring  and  settling  the  western  coun- 
try, from  which  great  advantages  have  resulted 
not  only  to  the  State  but  to  the  country  in  general, 
and  that  from  circumstances  over  which  he  had  no 

■  Thwaites,  Daniel  Boone.  To  this  and  other  biographies  of  Boone, 
cited  in  the  Bibliographical  Note  at  the  end  <jf  this  volume,  the 
author  is  indebted  for  the  material  contained  in  this  ihapter. 


BOONE'S  LAST  DAYS  277 

control  he  is  now  reduced  to  poverty;  not  having  so 
far  as  appears  an  acre  of  land  out  of  the  vast  terri- 
tory he  has  been  a  great  instrument  in  peopling." 
Daniel  was  seventy-six  then;  so  it  wp.    hf.^  in  the 
day  for  him  to  have  his  first  expe  icnce  of  ju.! .  e 
in  the  matter  of  land.     Perhaps    !   ..leased  h  m. 
however,  to  hear  that,  in  eonfirm.u^  Li.,  grant. 
Congress  had  designated  him  as  "the  man  who  has 
opened  the  way  for  millions  of  his  fellow-men." 

The  "infirmities"  which  had  caused  the  good 
Syndic  to  seek  relief  from  political  cares  must  have 
been  purely  magisterial.    The  hunter  could  have 
been  very  little  affected  by  them,  for  as  soon  as  he 
was  freed  from  his  duties  Boone  took  up  again  the 
silent  challenge  of  the  forest.    Usually  one  or  two 
of  his  sons  or  his  son-in-law,  Flanders  Calloway, 
accompanied  him,  but  sometimes  his  only  com- 
panions were  an  old  Indian  and  his  hunting  dog. 
On  one  of  his  hunting  trips  he  explored  a  part  of 
Kansas;  and  in  1814,  when  he  was  eighty,  he  hunted 
big  game  in  the  Yellowstone  where  again  his  heart 
rejoiced  over  great  herds  as  in  the  days  of  his  first 
lone  wanderings  in  the  Blue  Grass  country.    At 
last,  with  the  proceeds  of  these  expeditions  he  was 
able  to  pay  the  debts  he  had  left  behind  in  Ken- 
tucky thirty  years  before.     The  story  runs  that 


*t    A 


I    i 


Lit  ^1    ■    ^  '^ 


278  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Daniel  had  only  fifty  cents  remaining  when  all 
the  claims  had  been  settled,  but  so  contented  was 
he  to  be  able  to  look  an  honest  man  in  the  face 
that  he  was  in  no  disposition  to  murmur  over 
his  poverty. 

When  after  a  long  and  happy  life  his  wife  died 
in  1813,  Boone  lived  with  one  or  other  of  his  sons' 
and  sometimes  with  Flanders  Calloway.  Na- 
than Boone,  with  whom  Daniel  chiefly  made  his 
home,  built  what  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  stone 
house  in  Missouri.  Evidently  the  old  pioneer  disap- 
proved of  stone  houses  and  of  the  "luxuries"  in 
furnishings  which  were  then  becoming  possible 
to  the  new  generation,  for  one  of  his  biographers 
speaks  of  visiting  him  in  a  log  addition  to  his  son's 
house;  and  when  Chester  Harding,  the  painter, 
visited  him  in  1819  for  the  purpose  of  doing  his 
portrait,  he  found  Boone  dwelling  in  a  small  log 
cabin  in  Nathan's  yard.  When  Harding  entered, 
Boone  was  broiling  a  venison  steak  on  the  end  of 
his  ramrod.     During  the  sitting,  one  day,  Harding 

'  Boone's  son  Nathan  won  distinction  in  the  War  of  1812  and  en- 
tered the  regular  army,  rising  to  the  rank  of  Lieutenant  Colonel. 
Daniel  Morgan  Boone  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  settler  in  Kansas 
(1827).  One  of  Daniel's  grandsons,  bearing  the  name  of  Albert 
Gallatin  Boone,  was  a  pioneer  of  Colorado  and  was  to  the  forefront 
in  Rocky  Mountain  exploration.  Another  grandson  was  the  scout. 
Kit  Carson,  who  led  Fremont  to  California. 


BOONE'S  LAST  DAYS  279 

asked  Boone  if  he  had  ever  been  lost  in  the  woods 
when  on  his  long  hunts  in  th  ■  wilderness. 

"No.  I  never  got  lost,"  Boone  replied  reflec- 
tively, "  but  I  was  bewildered  ©nee  for  three  days." 
Though  now  having  reached  the  age  of  eighty- 
five.  Daniel  was  intensely  interested  in  California 
and  was  enthusiastic  to  make  the  journey  thither 
next  spring  and  so  to  flee  once  more  from  the 
civilization  which  had  crept  westward  along  his 
path.  The  resolute  opposition  of  his  sons,  how- 
ever, prevented  the  attempt. 

A  few  men  who  sought  out  Boone  in  his  old  age 
have  left  us  brief  accounts  of  their  impressions 
Among  these  was  Audubon.  "  The  stature  and  gen- 
eral appearance  of  this  wanderer  of  the  western 
forests,"  the  naturalist  wrote,  "approached  the 
gigantic.  His  chest  was  broad,  and  prominent;  his 
muscular  powers  displayed  th  Ves  in  every 
limb;  his  countenance  gave  indi.  of  his  great 

courage,  enterprise  and  perseverance;  and,  when 
he  spoke,  the  very  motion  of  his  lips  brought  the 
impression  that  whatever  he  uttered  could  not  be 
otherwise  than  strictly  true. " 

Audubon  spent  a  night  under  Boone's  roof.  He 
related  afterwards  that  the  old  hur"  ,  having  re- 
moved  his  hunting  shirt,  spread  his  blankets  on  the 


% 


\  I 


280  PIONEERS  OP  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
floor  and  lay  down  there  to  sleep,  saying  that  he 
found  it  more  comfortable  than  a  bed.    A  striking 
sketch  of  Boone  is  contained  in  a  few  lines  penned 
by  one  of  his  earliest  biographers :    "  He  had  what 
phrenologists  would  have  considered  a  model  head 
—  with  a  forehead  peculiarly  high,  noble  and  bold, 
thin  compressed  lips,  a  mild  clear  blue  eye,  a  large 
and  prominent  chin  and  a  general  expression  of 
countenance  in  which  fearlessness  and  courage  sat 
enthroned  and  which  told  the  beholder  at  a  glance 
what  he  had  been  and  was  formed  to  be."    In 
criticizing  the  various  portraits  of  Daniel,  the  same 
writer  says:  "They  want  the  high  port  and  nohle 
daring  of  his  countenance.  .  .  .     Never  was  old 
age  more  green,  or  gray  hairs  more  graceful.     His 
high,  calm,  bold  forehead  seemed  converted   by 
years  into  iron." 

Although  we  are  indebted  to  these  and  other 
early  chron.c.  .rs  for  many  details  of  Boone's  life, 
there  was  one  event  which  none  of  his  biographers 
has  related;  yet  we  know  that  it  must  have  taken 
place.  Even  the  bare  indication  of  it  is  found 
only  in  the  narrative  of  the  adventures  of  two 
other  explorers. 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  1803  that  these  two  men 
came  to  Boone's  Settlement,  as  La  Charette  w"  j 


'  f 


a  I- 


BOONE'S  LAST  DAYS  ggi 

now  generally  called.    They  had  planned  to  make 
their  winter  camp  there,  for  in  the  spring,  when  the 
Missouri  rose  to  the  flood,  they  and  their  company 
of  frontiersmen  were  to  take  their  way  up  that  un- 
charted stream  and  over  plains  and  mountains 
m  quest  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.    They  were  refused 
permission  by  the  Spanish  authorities  to  camp  al 
Boone's  Settlement;  so  they  lay  through  the  winter 
some  forty  miles  distant  on  the  Illinois  side  of  the 
Mississippi,  across  from  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri. 
Since  the  records  are  silent,  we  are  free  to  picture 
as  we  choose  their  coming  to  the  settlement  during 
the  winter  and  again  in  the  spring,  for  we  know 
that  they  came. 

We  can  imagine,  for  instance,  the  stir  they  made 
in  La  Charette  on  some  sparkling  day  when  the 
frost  bit  and  the  crusty  snow  sent  up  a  dancing 
haze  of  diamond  points.     We  can  see  the  friendly 
French  habitants  staring   after  the  two  young 
leaders  and  their  men  -  all  mere  boys,  though 
they  were  also  husky,  seasoned  frontiersmen  — 
with  their  bronzed  faces  of  English  cast,  as  in  their 
gayly  fringed  deerskins  they  swaggered  through  the 
hamlet  to  pay  their  respects  to  the  Syndic.    We 
may  think  of  that  dignitary  as  smoking  his  pipe  be- 
fore his  fireplace,  perhaps;  or  making  out,  in  his 


A. 


ir 


282  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

fantastic  spelling,  a  record  of  his  primitive  court  — 
for  instance,  that  he  had  on  that  day  given  Pierre 
a  dozen  hickory  thwacks,  "well  laid  on,"  for  start- 
ing a  brawl  with  Antoine,  and  had  bestowed  the 
same  upon  Antoine  for  continuing  the  brawl  with 
Pierre.  A  knock  at  the  doo"  would  bring  the  ami- 
able invitation  to  enter,  and  the  two  young  men 
would  step  across  his  threshold,  while  their  fol- 
lowers crowded  about  the  open  door  and  hailed 
the  old  pathfinder. 

One  of  the  two  leaders  —  the  dark  slender  man 
with  a  subtle  touch  of  the  dreamer  in  his  resolute 
face  —  was  a  stranger;  but  the  other,  with  the  more 
practical  mien  and  the  shock  of  hair  that  gave  him 
the  name  of  Red  Head  among  the  tribes,  Boone 
had  known  as  a  lad  in  Kentucky.  To  Daniel  and 
this  young  visitor  the  encounter  would  be  a  simple 
meeting  of  friends,  heightened  in  pleasure  and 
interest  somewhat,  naturally,  by  the  adventure 
in  prospect.  But  to  us  there  is  something  vast 
in  the  thought  of  Daniel  Boone,  on  his  last  fron- 
tier, grasping  the  hands  of  William  Clark  and 
Meriwether  Lewis. 

As  for  the  rough  and  hearty  mob  at  the  door, 
Daniel  must  have  known  not  a  few  of  them  well; 
though  they  had  been  children  in  the  days  when 


ii 


BOONE'S  LAST  DAYS  «8S 

he  and  William  Clark's  brother  strove  for  Ken- 
tucky.   It  seems  fitting  that  the  soldiers  with  this 
expedition  should  have  come  from  the  garrison  at 
Kaskaskia;  since  the  taking  of  that  fort  in  1778  by 
George  Rogers  dark  had  opened  the  western  way 
from  the  boundaries  of  Kentucky  to  the  Missis- 
sippi.  And  among  the  young  Kentuckians  enlisted 
by  William  Clark  were  sons  of  the  sturdy  fighters 
of  still  an  earlier  border  line,  Clinch  and  Holston  Val- 
ley men  who  had  adventured  under  another  Lewis 
at  Point  Pleasant.   Daniel  would  recognize  in  these 
—  such  as  Charles  Floyd  —  the  young  kinsmen  of 
his  old-time  comrades  whom  he  had  preserved  from 
starvation  in  the  Kentucky  wilderness  by  the  kill 
from  his  rifle  as  they  made  their  long  march  home 
after  Dunmore's  War. 

In  May,  Lewis  and  Clark's  pirogues  ascended 
the  Missouri  and  the  leaders  and  men  of  the  ex- 
pedition spent  another  day  in  La  Chaiettc.  Once 
again,  at  least,  Daniel  was  to  watch  the  westward 
departure  of  pioneers.  In  181 1 ,  when  the  Astorians 
passed,  one  of  their  number  pointed  to  the  im- 
mobile figure  of  "an  old  man  on  the  bank,  who, 
he  said,  was  Daniel  Boone. " 


Sometimes  the  aged  pioneer's  mind  cast  forward 


I  il 


284  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 
to  his  last  journey,  for  which  his  advancing  years 
were  preparing  him.  He  wrote  on  the  subject  to  a 
sister,  in  1816,  revealing  in  a  few  simple  lines  that 
the  faith  whereby  he  had  crossed,  if  not  more  liter- 
ally removed,  niountains  was  a  fixed  star,  and  that 
he  looked  ahead  fearlessly  to  the  dark  trail  he  must 
tread  by  its  single  gleam.  Autumn  was  tinting  the 
forest  and  the  tang  he  loved  was  in  the  air  when  the 
great  hunter  passed.  The  date  of  Boone's  death  is 
given  as  September  26, 1820.  He  was  in  his  eighty- 
sixth  year.  Unburdened  by  the  pangs  of  disease 
he  went  out  serenely,  by  the  gentle  marches  of  sleep, 
into  the  new  country. 

The  convention  for  drafting  the  constitution  of 
Missouri,  in  session  at  St.  Louis,  adjourned  for  the 
day,  and  for  twenty  days  thereafter  the  members 
wore  crape  on  their  arms  as  a  further  mark  of 
respect  for  the  great  pioneer.  Daniel  was  laid  by 
Rebecca's  side,  on  the  bank  of  Teugne  Creek, 
about  a  mile  from  the  Missouri  River.  In  1845,  the 
Missouri  legislators  hearkened  to  oft-repeated  pleas 
from  Kentucky  and  surrendered  the  remains  of  the 
pioneer  couple.  Their  bones  lie  now  in  Frankfort, 
the  capital  of  the  once  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground, 
and  in  1880  a  monument  was  raised  over  them. 

To  us  it  seems  rather  that  Kentucky  itself  is 


f.     .1 


BODNES  LAST  DAYS  gg.-i 

Boone's  monument;  even  as  those  other  great  corn 
States,  Illinois  and  Indiana,  are  Clark's.    There, 
these  two  servants  unafraid,  who  sacrificed  with^ 
out  me:  iure  in  the  wintry  winds  of  man's  ingrati- 
tude, are  each  year  memorialized  anew;  when  the 
earth  in  summer  — the  season  when  the  red  man 
slaughtered  -  lifts  up  the  full  gra.    in  the  ear,  the 
life-giving  corn;  and  when  autu.jn     miles  in  gold- 
en peace  over  the  stubble  fields,  where  the  reaping 
and  binding  machines  have  hummed  a  nation's 
harvest  song. 


u 

.  i. 


u  ;• 


mi' 


-^m 


IM 


f/i 


BIBLIOGR,VPHICAL  NcrfE 

TiiK  Rac£8  and  tueir  Migkation 

C.  A.  Hanna.  The  Scotch-Irish,  «  vols.    New  York 
1002.    A  very  full  if  .somewhat  over-enthusiastic  study' 

.r?      J'*""'^'  ^'''^  ^">tch-Irish  in  America.    Princeton, 
1915.     Excellent. 

A.  G.  Spangenberg.  Extracts  from  his  Journal  of 
travels  m  North  Carolina.  1752.  Publication  of  the 
Southern  History  Association.    Vol.  i,  1897. 

A.  B.  Faust,  The  German  Element  in  the  United  States 
2  vols,  (1909). 

J.  P.  MacLean,  An  Historical  Account  of  the  Settle- 
I.  ents  of  Scotch  Highlanders  in  America  (1900). 

S.  H.  Cobb,  The  Story  of  the  Palatines  (1897). 

N.  p.  Mereness  (editor),  Travels  in  the  American 
Colonies.  New  York,  1916.  This  collection  contains 
the  diary  of  the  Moravian  Brethren  cited  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  present  volume. 

Life  in  the  Back  Country 

Joseph  Doddridge,  Notes  on  the  Settlements  and  Indian 
Wars  of  the  Western  Parts  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania, 
from  1763  to  1783.  Albany,  1876.  An  intimate  descrip- 
tion of  the  daily  life  of  the  early  settlers  in  the  Back 
Country  by  one  of  themselves. 

187 


«88 


niBIJOGRAFIIlCAL  NOTE 


» 


. '.    ? 


?>' 


J.  F.  I).  Smyth,  Tour  in  the  United  Staten  of  America, 
9  vol.1.  Ixindon,  1784.  Minute  de!icription.<4  of  thn  FJark 
Country  and  interesting  pictured  of  the  life  of  the  set- 
tlerii;  biased  a.s  to  political  view.s  by  Royalist  sympathies. 

William  11.  Ftxitc,  Sketches  of  North  Carolina,  New 
York.  1840.  See  Foote  also  for  history  of  the  first 
I'rrsbyterian  ministers  in  the  Back  Country.  As  to 
political  history,  inaccurate. 

Karly  IIihtouv  and  Expu)Ration 

J.  S.  Bassctt  (editor).  The  WritingH  of  Colonel  William 
liijrd  of  Wentorer.  New  York,  1901.  A  contemporary 
record  of  early  Virginia. 

Thomas  Walker,  Journal  of  an  Exploration  in  the 
Spring  of  the  Year  1750.  Boslon,  18JJ8.  The  record  of 
his  travels  by  the  discoverer  of  Cumberland  Gap. 

William  M.  Dprlington  (editor),  ChriMopher  Gist'a 
Journals.  Pittsburgh,  1893.  Contains  Gist's  account 
of  his  surveys  for  the  Ohio  Company,  1750. 

C.  A.  Hanna,  The  Wilderness  Trail,  i  vols.  New 
York,  1911.  An  exhaustive  work  of  research,  with  full 
accounts  of  Croghan  and  Findlay.  See  also  Croghan's 
and  Johnson's  correspondence  in  vol.  vn.  New  York 
Colonial  Records. 

James  Adair,  The  History  of  the  American  Indians,  etc. 
Lonfion,  1775.  The  personal  record  of  a  trader  who  was 
one  of  the  earliest  explorers  of  the  Alleghanies  and  of  the 
Mississippi  region  east  of  the  river;  a  many-sided  work, 
intensely  interesting. 

C.  W.  Alvord,  The  Genesis  of  the  Proclamation  of  1763. 
Reprinted  from  Canadian  Archives  Report,  1906.  A 
new  and  authoritative  interpretation.  In  this  connec- 
tion see  also  the  correspondence  between  Sir  William 


t  i 


a 


.1  • 


niBF.KXiRAPniCAL  NOTK  289 

Johnson  and  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  vol.  vii  of  New  York 
Colonial  Records. 

Justin  Winsor,  The  \tian»»ippi  Barin.    The  Struggle 
i«  America  betweni  England  and  France.    CambridKe 
1805.    Fmsents  the  results  of  exhaustive  research  ond 
the  cKirdination  of  facts  by  an  historian  of  broad  in- 
tellect and  vision. 

( 'nlon ial  and  State  Record!,  of  North  ( 'arolina.  MO  vols. 
The  chief  fountain  .source  of  the  early  history  of  North 
Carolina  and  Tennessee. 

W.  11.  Hoyt.  The  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. New  York.  1907.  This  Inmk  presents  the 
view  generally  adopted  by  historians,  that  the  alleged 
Decloration  of  Moy  40.  1775,  is  spurious. 

Justin  Winsor  (editor),  Narrative  and  Critical  History 
of  Amenca.  8  V(.ls.  (1884-1889).  .\lso  The  Westward 
Movement.  Cambridge.  1897.  Both  works  of  incalcu- 
lable value  to  the  student. 

C^  W.  Alvord.  The  Mimsitippi  Valley  in  British  Poli- 
tics. 2  vols.  Cleveland,  1917.  A  profound  work  of 
great  value  to  students. 

Kentucky 

R.  G.  Thwaites  and  L.  P.  Kellogg  (editors).  Docu- 
mentary History  of  Dunmore's  War,  177 Jt.  Compiled 
from  the  Draper  Manuscripts  in  the  library  of  the 
Wiscon.sin  Historical  Society.  Madison,  1905.  A  col- 
lection of  interesting  and  valuable  documents  with  a 
suggestive  introduction. 

R.  G.  Thwaites,  Daniel  Boone.  New  York,  1902. 
A  short  and  accurate  narrative  of  Boone's  life  and  ad- 
ventures compiled  from  the  Draper  Manuscripts  and 
from  earlier  printed  biographies. 

19 


290 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


N: 


't^ 


i  ' 


John  P.  Hale.  Daniel  Boone,  Some  Facts  and  Inci- 
dents not  Hitherto  Published.  A  pamphlet  giving  an  ac- 
count of  Boone  in  West  Virginia.  Printed  at  Wheeling, 
West  Virginia.    Undated. 

Timothy  Flint,  The  First  White  Man  of  the  West  or 
the  Life  and  Exploits  of  Colonel  Dan'l  Boone.  Cincin- 
nati, 1854.  Valuable  only  as  regards  Boone's  later  years. 

John  S.  C.  Abbott,  P-"iiel  Boone,  the  Pioneer  of  Ken- 
tucky.   New  York,  1872.    Fairly  accurate  throughout. 

J.  M.  Peck,  Daniel  Boone  (in  Sparks,  Library  of 
American  Biography.    Boston,  1847). 

William  Henry  Bogart.  Daniel  Boone  and  the  Hunters 
of  Kentucky.    New  York,  1856. 

William  Hayden  English,  Conquest  of  the  Country 
Northwest  of  the  River  Ohio,  1778-1783,  and  Life  of  Gen- 
eral George  Rogers  Clark,  2  vols.  Indianapolis,  1896. 
An  accurate  and  valuable  work  for  which  the  author 
has  made  painstaking  research  among  printed  and  un- 
printed  documents.  Contains  Clark's  own  account  of 
his  campaigns,  letters  he  wrote  on  public  and  personal 
matters,  and  also  letters  from  contemporaries  in  defense 
of  his  reputation. 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  The  Winning  of  the  West,  4  vols. 
New  York,  1889-1896.  A  vigorous  and  spirited  narrative. 

Tennessee 

J.  G.  M.  Ramsey,  The  Annals  of  Tennessee.  Charles- 
ton, 1853.  John  Haywood,  The  Civil  and  Political 
History  of  the  State  of  Tennessee.  Nashville,  1891. 
(Reprint  from  1828.)  These  works,  with  the  North 
Carolina  Colonial  Records,  are  the  source  books  of 
early  Tennessee.  In  statistics,  such  as  numbers  of  In- 
dians and  other  foes  defeated  by  Tennessee  heroes,  not 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


291 

reliable  Incorrect  as  to  causes  of  Indian  wars  during  the 
Revolution^  On  this  subject  see  letters  and  reports  by 
John  and  Henry  Stuart  in  North  Carolina  CobnialRel 

nS  r ' '  u^  ''."'•■''  ^^  ^^"^'•^'  ^^g^  -«d  letters  and 
proclamation  by  General  Ethan  Allen  in  American  Ar- 
chives Fourth  Senes.  vol.  „.  and  by  Pi^sident  Rutledge 

I    AH      ^'"«  J"«^'"  Winsor,  TA.  JT.^,      d  Movement. 

J.  A, son.  Dropped  Stitches  in  Temcessee  Historu 
NashvUIe,  1897.  Contains  interesting  matter  r.\aZ 
to  Andrew  Jackson  in  his  younger  days  as  well  as  about 
other  strikmg  figures  of  the  time 

Yo^k'^Jo "T  r-\  ''^'  "^  '''^''"'  ''"^"  '''^'^-    New 
i^ork    1910.     A  fairly  accurate  narrative  of  events  in 

a^^T^'  '*".*;^^™'  ":'"^^  '^  ^^'  Tennessee,  or  Life 
<^ndnmes  of  General. James  Robertson.  Nashville,  1859. 
A  rambhng  engthy  narrative  containing  some  interest- 
ng  materml  and  much  that  is  unreliable.     Its  worst 

Sn<LrnthTb>"  r''""?'  -timentality.  and  i^dd- 
gence  m  the  habit  of  putting  the  author's  rodomontades 
mto  the  mouths  of  Robertson  and  other  characters 

of  th.  A  '  ^r'«f«^^  »/^Vor/A  Carolina,  in  Report 

of  the  American  Historical  Association,  1894. 

L.  C.  Draper,  King's  Mountain  and  its  Heroes    Cin- 
annatM881.    The  source  book  on  this  event.'  Con- 

e'^g^nXtat^r  *^'  ^^'''^^  ^^^  ^^«  -" 

French  and  Spanish  Intrigues 
Hen^  Doniol,  Histoire  de  la  participation  de  la  France 
d  I  etahhssement  des  EtaU-Unis  d'AmSrique,   5   vols. 


I'  i 


292 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


i 


■i'i 


1 11 


Paris,  1886-1892.  A  complete  exposition  of  the 
French  and  Spanish  poHcy  towards  America  during  the 
Revolutionary  Period. 

Manuel  Serrano  y  Sanz,  El  brigadier  Jaime  Wilkinson 
y  sua  tratos  con  Espaha  para  la  independencia  del  Ken- 
tucky,  anos  1787  d  1797.  Madrid,  1915.  A  Spanish 
view  of  Wilkinson's  intrigues  with  Spain,  based  on 
letters  and  reports  in  the  Spanish  Archives. 

Thomas  Marshall  Green,  The  Spanish  Conspiracy. 
Cincinnati,  1891.  A  good  local  account,  from  American 
sources.  The  best  material  on  this  subject  is  found  in 
Justin  Winsor's  The  Westward  Movement  and  Narrative 
and  Critical  History  because  there  viewed  against  a 
broad  historical  background.  See  Winsor  also  for  the 
Latin  intrigues  in  Tennessee.  For  material  on  Alexan- 
der McGillivray  see  the  American  Archives  and  the 
Colonial  Records  of  Georgia. 

Edward  S.  Corwin,  French  Policy  and  the  American 
Alliance  of  1778.  Princeton,  1916.  Deals  chiefly  with 
the  commercial  aspects  of  French  policy  and  should  be 
read  in  conjunction  with  Winsor,  Jay,  and  Fitzmaurice's 
Life  of  William,  Earl  of  SheUmme.  3  vols.  London, 
1875. 

John  Jay,  On  the  Peace  Negotiations  of  1782-83  as 
Illustrated  by  the  Secret  Correspondence  of  France  and 
England.  New  York,  1888.  A  paper  read  before  the 
American  Historical  Association,  May  23,  18S7. 


i 


INDEX 


Abingdon  (Penn).  Boone  fainilv 

at,  25 
Adair,    James,    pioneer    trader 

«9-74,  158  (note) 
Alabama,  Creek  nation  in,  57 
Alabama,  Fort,  French  at,  57 

68 

Alamance,  Battle  of  the,  104 
Allaire,  Lieutenant,  officer  under 

Ferguson,  800,  «13 
Allen,  General  Ethan,   tries   to 

enlist  Indian  aid  in  Canada, 

176  (note) 
Alyord,  C.  W.,  The  Mississippi 

VaUey  in  British  PUitics.  cited, 

110  (note).  113  (note) 
American     Archives,     cited,     8 

(note).  1«3  (note),  176  (note) 
Aime.  Queen,  invites  Palatines  to 

England.  15 
"Apostle.  The."  Count  Zinzen- 

dorf,  Moravian  leader,  16-17 
AttakuUakulla,  Cherokee  states- 
man, 133 
Audubon,  J.  J.,  and  Boone,  27fr- 

280 
Avery,  Waightstill.  162 


companion     to 


Baker,     John. 

Boone,  95 
Bean  (or  Been),  William,  erects 

first  cabin  on  Watauga  River, 

159 
Beautiful  River,  125,  274 
Big    Bone    Lick,    Boone    6nds. 

Big  Turtle,  name  given  Boone 
by  Indians,  145 


293 


Black    Fish.    Shawanoe    chief 

145.  146.  147,  148 
Bledsoe,  Captain  Anthony,  121 

125  (note),  149 
Blount,    William.    Governor   of 

Tennessee.  265 
Blue  Licks  (Ky.).  97.  102,  143; 

battle  at,  152 
Bluff  Hector,  nickname  for  Hec- 
tor MacNeill.  12 
Bogart.  W.  H..  Danid  Boone  and 
the  Hunters  of  Kentucky,  cited, 
13o  (note) 
Boone,  Albert   Gallatin,  grand- 

son  of  Daniel,  278  (note) 
Boone,  Daniel,  nationality,  24- 
25;  family,  24-26,  27-28;  born 
(1734),  26;  early  life.  26-27; 
i«"™ey   to    North    Carolina. 
29-30;  home  on  the  Yadkin. 
48;  Findlay  and,  52-53,  83 
90,    97.    98,    100.    131-32;   in 
Uraddock  s     campaign.      83- 
marriage.  90^-91;  in  Virginia. 
92;  removes  to  North  Carolina 
?*:  «fv«ng  on  tree.  93;  with 
Waddell  s  rangers,  93;  travels 
to  I-Iorida,  94;  first  expedition 
into  Kentucky,  95-97;  second 
Kentucky  expedition.  97-103; 
lonely    explorations.     101-02; 
personal  characteristics.   105- 
106;  removes  family  to  Powell's 
Valley.  106-09;  part  in  Dun- 
more's  war,  120-22,  128;  and 
Henderson's  venture,  129,  130 
(note),   13),    133,   134-36:  at 
Boonesborough,   140-41,   143, 


294 


INDEX 


iH 


h? 


i!) 


r.-r 


:       ' 


Boono,  Daniel — Continmd 
147-49;  captured  by  Indians, 
144-47;  adopted  by  Indian 
chief,  145;  and  Hamilton, 
145-46;  goes  to  West  Virginia, 
156;  last  days,  273  et  seq. 

Boone,  Daniel  Morgan,  son  of 
Daniel,  878  (note) 

Boone,  Edward,  brother  of  Dan- 
iel, 152 

Boone,  George,  grandfather  uf 
Daniel.  24-25 

Boone,  George,  Jr.,  uncle  of  Dan- 
iel, 25 

Boone,  Israel,  second  son  of 
Daniel.  152 

Boone,  James,  eldest  son  of 
Daniel.  93,  107-08 

Boone,  Jemima,  daughter  of 
Daniel,  141 

Boone,  John,  son  of  Daniel, 
106 

Boone,  Nathan,  son  of  Daniel, 
278 

Boone.  Rebecca,  wife  of  Daniel, 
91,  107. 178 

Boone,  Sa>'i.  brother  of  Duniel, 
27 

Boone,  Sarah,  daughter  of 
George,  25 

Boone,  Sarah  Morgan,  mother 
of  Daniel,  26,  28-29 

Boone,  Squire,  brother  of  Daniel, 
100,  102 

Boone,  Squire,  father  of  Daniel, 
25.  91;  marriage.  26;  expelled 
from  Society  of  Friends.  28; 
leaves  Pennsylvania,  28-29 

Boone's  Fort.  137 

Boone's  Settlement  (La  Char- 
ette).  280-81;  see  also  L.i 
'"'  arette 

BvX>nesborough.  Transylvania 
settlement,  138,  142,  24,>: 
Boone  in,  140-41,  143,  147- 
149;  Indian  attacks  on.  146-48; 
Robertson  goes  to,  246 

Bowman,  John.  149 

"Braddock's  Defeat."  82 


Branching  Ouk  of  the  Forest 
(Tach-ncch-dor-us),  Indian 
chief,  119 

Brandywine.  Battle  of.  Fergu- 
son in,  197 

Broglie,  Comte  de.  French  agent 
in  America,  249 

Brown,  Widow,  at  whose  inn 
Sevier  is  arrested.  241 

Brown.  Dr.  Samuel.  Clark's 
letter  to.  127  (note) 

Bryan,  Joseph,  father  of  Re- 
becca Boone,  91 

Bryan.  Rebecca,  marries  Daniel 
Boone,  91;  see  also  Boone, 
Rebecca 

Bryan  party  on  expedition  to 
Kentucky,  107,  108 

Buffalo  (Tenn.),  Court  at.  257 

Bull.  Colonel  William,  pioneer 
trader,  55 

Bullitt.  Captain  Thomas.  113, 
121 

Caldwell.  David.  Presbyterian 
minister,  162 

Calloway,  Flanders,  son-in-law 
of  Daniel  Boone.  277.  278 

Calloway.  Richard,  daughters 
captured  by  Indians.  141; 
accuses  Boone  of  treachery. 
146  (note) 

Cameron.  Alexander.  British 
agent  to  Cherokees.  170.  174. 
176  (note) 

Camp  Union  (Lewisburg).  ren- 
dezvous for  expedition  in 
Dunmore's  War.  115 

Campbell.  Major  Arthur.  121-22. 
125  (note).  236 

Campbell.  David,  judge  in  Ten- 
nessee, 237,  240 

Campbell,  Rev.  Jame.>s,  30 

Campbell,  Colonel  William,  at 
battle  of  Point  Pleasant.  124 
(note);  and  King's  Mountain, 
205,211.219,222 

Carolinas,  Cherokees  in,  .>7; 
Regulation  Movement  in,  159- 


INDEX 


( 'arolinas — Continued 

104;  we  aluo  North  rarolinn. 
aouth  Carolina 

Carson.   Kit,  grandson  of  |)„uiel 
Boone,  <i7H  (note) 

Catanba  Indians,  36,  67 

<  eloron  de  Blainville,  77 

Chads  Ford,  Ferguson's  anroiint 
of  incident  at,  l{tH-m 

Charleston  (S.  C.),  Smtrh-Jrish 
in,  0 

Cherokee  In<lian.s,  in  the  Yadkin, 
3C;  Io<-ation  and  number,  57; 
and  Adair,  58-74;  customs, 
(ii;  and  French,  66-68;  Priber 
compiles  <lictionary,  69;  in 
French  and  Indian  Wars,  83- 
87;  Indian  policy  of  South  Car- 
ohna,  84-86;  treaty  with  Ene- 
hsh  (1701),  87.  118;  trouble 
m  Kentucky,  111;  Henderson 
purchases  land  from,  ISO-S,': 
in  Tennessee,  158,  228,  455; 
South  Carolina  sends  aminun'- 

H°°„,**';    ^"^"^^    P^at*    made 
(1777),  183;  attack  WaUuua 
226-87.  228:  North  Carolfna 
and,    232;    McGillivray   and. 
257;  forced  westward,  271 

Chickamaugan  Indians,  173 

Chickasfiw  Indians,  location,  57-   ! 
Adair  and.  58,  59,  62,  72-73, 
840;  in  Tennessee,  158;   Mc- 
Gillivray    and,     257;     forc-cd 
westward,  271 

Chillicothe,  Indian  town,  l((i 
153 

Choctaw  Indians,  location,  57- 
and  French  '58;  Adair  and. 
03;     McG;'  nd.     257; 

forced  wet        a,      I 

Choiseul.  Etienne  Francois.  Due 

de,  French  Minister.  249 
Chota.  deputation  of  Indians  at. 

178;     Robertson     as     Indian 

agent  at,  183 
Chronicle,  Colonel,  209 
(.'ivil  War,  part  of  mountaineers 

in,  224 


i95 


I   Clark,  G.  R.,  283,  285;  in  "Cre- 

<       sap's     War,"     110-17;     with 
i>unmore's  forces,  125  (rjte)- 
and  Chief  Logan,  127  (note)! 
at  Harrodsburg.  129.  139,  151 
1 52;  and  Harrodsburg  Remon- 
strance, 140:  brings  ammuni- 
I       tion  from  Virginia,  142;  made 
a  major.   149;  founds  Louis- 
ville.  150;  builds  Fort  .leffer- 
son,  150;  war  on  Indians,  153, 
262;  letter  to  (;overnor  of  Vir- 
gmia      154;    later    life.     155; 
death  (1818),  155;  ami  Wilkin- 
son,   202-04;    personal    ,har. 
acteristics,  263 

Clark.  William,  brother  of  (;.  R  , 
155;  Lewis  and,  282 

Clark,  Elijah.  212 

Cleveland.  Colonel,  at  King's 
Mountain.  209.  220.  222 

Cocke.  William.  238 

Colbert,  white  leader  of  Indians, 
150-51 

Connolly.  Dr.  John.  Dunmore's 
agent.  113  (note) 

Cooley.  William,  accompanies 
Boone  to  Kentucky,  98,  loo 

(ooper,  .J  F..  on  Ferguson's 
story  of  Washington.  199 
(note) 

Cornstalk.  Shawanoe  chief.  118 
123-24.  126 

Cornwallis.  Edward.  195.  196 
202,  213.  214.  222.  228.  229     ' 

Corporation  Acts.  4 

Cowpens,  frontiersmen  at.  215; 
Morgan's  victory  at,  222 

Craighead.  Rev.  Alexander.  Pres- 
byterian minister,  8,  162 

Creek  Indians,  disclose  Spanish 
PM'.i.*^^  '«^ation,  57;  and 
McGdhvray,  58-59.  855-56; 
forced  westward.  871 

Cresap.     Captain    Michael. 
Maryland.  116.117.  187 

"Cresap'.s  War."  117 

Croghan,     George.     "King 


of 


of 


rraders,    58.  118-13. 11.5. 118 


206 


INDEX 


C: 


W. 


ftl 


1'» 


h  'I 


M 


CroM  Creek  (Fayetteville),  Mao- 
Neill  at.  1« 

Culloden.  victory  of,  »,  11 

Cumberland.  Duke  of.  direcls 
cxteriiiination  of  Gaels.  II 

Cumberland  Gap.  Findlay  leads 
Boone  thruuKh,  5i-Sii;  Boone 
robbed  in,  103 

Cutbirth  (or  Culbird).  Benja- 
min, nephew  of  Daniel  Boone, 
95 

Dartmouth.  Lord.  Secretary  for 
the  Colonies,  letters  to,  6. 176, 
170  (note) 
Day,  Sarah,  marries  Sam  Boone. 

27 
De    Lancey.    Major,    father-in- 
law    of    J.    F.    Cooper.    199 
(note) 
De  Peyster.  Captain,  officer  un- 
der Ferguson-  200,  218,  210 
Delassus,   Lieutenant  Governor 

of  Upper  Louisiana,  27« 
Delaware  Indians,  178;  location. 
57;  and  French,  58;  and  Dun- 
more's  War.  114.  118 
Dequindre,     French     Canadian 
leader  of  Indian  band,    143, 
147^8 
Detroit,  in  hands  ryf  English,  87; 

Boone  at,  145-46 
Dinwiddie.  Robert,   Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Virginia,  77-80,81 
Doak,  Rev.  Samuel,  207.  235 
Dobbs.    Arthur,    Governor    of 

North  Carolina,  79.  86 
Dobbs,  E.  D.,  son  of  Governor. 

83 
r^onelflon.    Captain   John,    186; 

Journal,  187-93 
Dorchester,  Lord,  Governor  of 

Canada,  2G5 
Dragging  Canoe.  Chickamau- 
gan  chief,  133-34,  173.  179, 
180,  181,  183,  206.  229 
Draper,  L.  C,  King's  Mountain 
and  itt  Heroen,  cited,  199 
(note),  204  (note),  213  (note) 


Dunmore,    Lord,    Governor    of 
Virginia,  112  (note),  118,  114- 
116,  118,  120.   123.   125.   126, 
{       176  (note) 

Dunraore's  War,  114  li  ««. 
I   Duquesne,  Fort.  81.  82,  87,  88 

English,  W.  H.,  Conquetl  of  the 
Country  Northwest  of  the  River 
Ohio,  cited,  127  (note) 

Falling,  William,  173 

Fanning,     Edmund,     agent    of 

Lord  Granville,  160 
Femme    Osage    Creek.    Boone 

settles  at,  274-75 
Femme  Osage  Syndic,  875-77 
Ferguson,  Dr. Adam,  letter  to,  198 
Fergiison,  Major  Patrick,  as  a 
soldier.    196-98;   as   a    man, 
198-200;  commands  loyalists 
in  Back  Country,  200-06,  211; 
at  King's  Mountain,  212-20; 
death,  210-20,  221 
Findlay,  John,  pioneer  trader, 
and  Daniel  Boone,  52,  83,  90. 
97,  98,  100,  131-82;  in  Brad- 
dodk's  campaign,  83;  captured 
by  Shawanoes,  97,  131 
Fitaherbert,  letter  quoted,   252 

(note) 
Fleming,  William,  124 
Florida,  Spanish  and  Indians  in, 

55,  56;  Boone  explores,  04 
Floridablanca,  Spanish  Minister. 

250 
Floyd,  John,  Washington's  agent, 

113-14;  and  Boone,  121,  141 
Forbes,  General,   expedition  in 

1759,  87 
Pl-ance,  Highlanders  flee  to,  0; 
and  Indians,  53,  54,  58,  178- 
179;  possessions  in  America, 
66.  57;  Adair's  account  of 
struggles  with  French,  63; 
Priber  sent  by.  66-70;  French 
and  Indian  Wars,  75  et  aeq.; 
attitude  toward  American  in- 
dependence, 248-53 


INDEX 


PVankfort  (Ky.).  Daniel  Boone's 

grave  in.  284 
Frankland,    State    of,    834-38; 

*«\al»o  Franklin.  SUte  of 
rVanklin.  Benjamin.  238 
Franklin.    State   of,    238,    240 
M9.  260,  206;  see  aim  Frank- 
land.  State  of 
FWmont,  J.  C,  278  (note) 
French  and  Indian  Wars,  73  el 
*eq. 

Friends,  Society  of,  expel  Squire 

Boone,  28 
Furniture  of  the  pioneers,  45- 

46 

Gaels,  see  Highlanders 

Gage.  General  Thomas,  quotetl, 
176  (note) 

Galphin,  pioneer  trader,  59.  250 

Gates,  General,  202,  210,  221 

Gaaette,  Knoxville,  Jackson's  let- 
ter m.  268 

Georgia,  Creek  nation  in,  57- 
Tories  in,  195;  and  State  of 
Franklin.  238;  and  McGilii- 
vray.  256-57,  258 

Germain.  Lord,  and  Stuart.  170 
(note).  177 

Germttn  Palatinate,  persecution 
of  Protestants  in.  15 

German  Reformed  Church,  15 
Germans,  in  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  14-15;  as  immigrants, 

Gibson.  Major.  126 

Gibson.  Colonel  John,  117-lH 

Girty.  George,  143 

Girty.  James,  143 

Gist.  Christopher.  77.  78 

Glen.  Governor  of  South  Caro- 
lina. 63.  64;  Indian  policy, 
84 

Gottlob,  Brother.  Moravian 
leader,  19.  21.  23.  24 

Gower.  Fort,  123 

Grant,  Colonel  James,  04 

Grantham,  Lord,  letter  to  252 
(note) 


297 


Granville.    Lord,    Proprietor  in 

North    Carolina,    Moravians 

purchase  land  from.  18;  agents 

I       oppress  people.  104,  159 

.  f.reat  Meadows.  Washington  at. 

Great  Telliko,   Cherokee  town 
I       62,  66,  69,  158 
Great  War,  part  of  mounUineers 

in,  224-25 
Grcathouse,  trader.  117 
Greene,  General  Nathanael,  221- 

Greene.  T.  M.,  The  Spanish 
Conspiracy,  cited,  264  (note) 

urube,  Adam,  Moravian  Broth- 
er, 18;  Journal,  19-24 

Guilford  Court  House,  battle  of 
222 

Hamilton.  Henry.  British  Gov- 
ernor  at  Detroit,  139,  145- 
146 

Ilampbright,  Colonel,  209 

Hanna,  C.  A.,  The  Wilderness 
Trail,  cited,  97  (note) 

Hwrding,   Chester,   and   Boone. 

Harrod,  James,  139;  establishes 
nrst  settlement  in  Kentucky 
110, 114. 121, 129;  as  surveyor! 
113;    and    Henderson,     138- 
goes  to  WatauKa  for  supplies, 
141-42;  made  a  Captain,  149; 
■       accompanies  Clark,  153 
Ilarrodsburg,     136,     142,     149, 
153,   24.5,  246;  founded,   114. 
129;  Remonstrance,  140,  151; 
Indian  attacks  on.  146 
Henderaon.  Judge  Richard. leader 
of     Transylvania    Compan<' 
130-40,    160,    184-85;  DoneJ- 
son  s  party  meets,  193 
Henry,  Patrick,  Preston  writes 
I       to,  125 
'  Heydt.  Joist.  16 
I  Highlanders,    in    Revolutionary 
!       War,    8,     13-14;    in    North 
I      Carolina,  9;  clan  system.  10; 


\mm 


208 


INDEX 


k  ) 


Ilighlanden — ( 'onlin  ucd 
characteristics,  10-U;  and  In- 
dians, 54-55;  see  alto  Scotch- 
Iriih 

Hill,  William,  96 

Holden,  Joseph.  98,  100 

Holston  River  settlement,   141, 
158.  159,  163,  176 

Iloncycut,  pioneer  at  Watauga. 
165 

Hooper,  William,  160  ] 

Houston,  Rev.  Samuel,  233  ! 

Hoyt,  W.  H..  The  Mecklenburg  j 
Declaration  of  Independence,  j 
cited,  8  (note)  _  | 

Huguenots  in  America.  34 

Hunter,  James,  104  i 

Husband.  Hermon,  Kil.  Ki'!. 
164 

Illinois.  Clark's  troops.  Mi.  185 
(note).  483;  Robertson  jour- 
neys to,  185;  and  Clark,  885 

"Indian  Summer,"  origin  of 
term,  41 

Indiana  and  Clark,  285 

Indians,  relation  to  white  men  iti 
West,  38-43;  use  of  hickory, 
45;  and  the  traders,  52  et  scq.; 
and  French,  53.  64,  58,  178- 
179;  and  Spanish,  53.  54.  55. 
255;  IJoone  and,  101-02, 
103;  Dunmore's  War,  114  it 
seq.;  "Cresap's  War,"  117; 
treachery  toward,  117-18; 
purchase  of  land  from,  131- 
134;  trouble  in  Kentucky, 
135-36.  139,  143.  152-53; 
nee  also  names  of  tribes 

Ireland.    Scotch-Irish    from.    «; 

see  also  Ulster  PlanUtion 
Iroquois  Indians,  location,  57; 
loyalty  to  English,  58;  Cro- 
ghan  and,  118;  cede  Kentucky 
to  British,  132;  see  also  Six 
Nations 

Jackson.  Andrew.  iJ4:J,  2(i«i 
Jay,  John,  On  the  Peace  Ncgoti- 


alioHs   of  I7H^-17SJ  us  illus- 
Iruled    by    the    Secret    Corn- 
spondencc  of  France  and  Eng- 
land, cited,  252  (note) 
Jefferson,    Thomas,    and    navi- 
gation  of   Mississippi   River, 
254 
Jefferson.  Fort.  150.  151 
Jennings.   Mrs..  Donelson's  ac- 
count of.  188.  190.  191 
Johnson,  Sir  William,  and  Iro- 
quois Indians,   58,   179;  and 
sale  of  Indian  land,  HI 
Johnston,  Gabriel,  Governor  of 

North  Carolina,  9 
Jonesborough  (Tenn.),  county 
seat  of  Washington,  184;  dele- 
gates meet  to  form  State,  233; 
court  at,  237;  Andrew  Jack- 
son at.  266 

Kalb,  Johann,  French  agent  in 

America,  249 
Kansas,  Daniel  Boone  in,  277 
Kenton,     Simon,     125     (note). 

143 
Kentucky,  meaning  of  name,  95 
(note);   Boone's  first  expedi- 
tion to,  95-97;  expedition  of 
i       Boone  and  Findlay  into,  97- 
103;    settlement   and    Indian 
1       troubles,  104-56;  admitted  as 
'       State  (1792),  156;  and  Missis- 
sippi River,  234;  as  Boone's 
monument,  284;  bibliography, 
289-90 
Keppoch,  Laird  of,  legend  con- 
cerning, 11 
King,  trader,  117,  118 
King's     Mountain.     Battle    of. 

214-21 
Knoxville    (Tenn.).    Sevier   and 
Jackson  in.  268;  Sevier  buried 
in.  269-70 
I 

!   La  Charette   (Mo.),    Boone  at. 
j       274-75.  281;  see  also  Boone's 

Settlement 
I  Le  Bceuf.  Fort,  79 


v.ri  t  I- 


s  ». 


i>a)Ex 


'299 


Lewis,  Colonel  Andrew,  114-15, 

ltt-23.  Hi  (note).  158 
Lewis,    Colonel    Charle*,    115, 

124 
Lewia.  Meriwether.  282,  283 
Logan,  Mingo  chief  Tach-nerh- 

dor-us,  119,  120,  126-27 
Logan,    Benjamin,    125    (note), 

135,  136,  141-42,  140 
Long  Hunters,  103 
Loudon,  Fort,  158 
Louisbourg  in  hands  of  English, 

87 
Louisville,  Findlay  reaches  site 

of,    97;    Clark    founds,    150; 

Wilkinson  at,  262 
Lulbegrud  Creek,  100 
Lutheran  Church,  15 
Luzerne,  French  Ambasiiador  at 

Philadelphia.  251 
Lytle,  CapUin.  203-04 
Lytle,  Mrs.,  and  Ferguson,  204 
Lyttleton,   Governor   of   South 

Carolina,  85 

McAden,  Rev.  Hugh,  of  Phila- 
delphia, 50 

McAfee,  James,  136 

McAfee  brothers,  113,  136 

McDowell,  Colonel  Charles,  20U 
201, 202, 206, 210,  211-12. 213, 
243 

McDowell,  Joseph,  243 

McGillivray,  Alexander,  Creek 
chief,  59,  255-61 

McGillivray,  Lachlan,  father  of 
Alexander,  58-59,  256,  257 

McGregor,  William,  9 

Macdonald,  Allan,  of  Kings- 
borough,  14 

MacDonald,  Flora,  14 

MacLean,  J.  P.,  An  Historical 
Account  of  the  Settlement  of 
Scotch  Highlanders  in  America, 
cited,  11  (note) 

MacNeill,  Hector,  (Bluff  Hec- 
tor). 12 

MacNeill,  Neil,  of  Kintyre. 
12 


Manuker.  Gasp«v,  to.'l.  I  H.I 
Marion,  General  Francis,  229 
Martin,  Jnsiah,  Royal  Governor 

of  North  Carolina,  13 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, 8 
Mereness,  N.  D.,  ed.,  Travels  in 

the  American  C<^onie»,  cite<l. 

18  (note) 
Mingo  Indians,    lit.    117.    US. 

119-20.  126 
Mir6,  Don  Fstevan.  Governor  of 

Loui-^iana,  254-55,  250.  260- 

261 
Mississippi  (State).  Choctaws  in, 

63 
Mississippi  River,  French  terri- 
tory on,  56;  Choctaws  on,  57; 

Stewart's   party  reaches,  95; 

Spain  refuses  right  of  navi- 
gation of,  253-54 
Mis.souri,  Boone  settles  in,  271; 

Boone  dies  in,  284 
Mobile.  French  hold,  57 
Mohawk  Indians,  178.  179 
Montgomery,  John,  125  (note) 
Montreal  in  hands  of  English. 

87 
Mooney.  James,  98,  100 
Moore's  Fort,  Boone  command-s. 

122 
Moravians,  15,  16-24 
Morgan,  Daniel,  125  (note).  22^ 
Morgan,  Sarah,  marries  Squirt- 

Bw>ne.    36;    see    also    Buonc. 

Sarah  Morgan 
Morgantown      (N.  C).      Sevier 

sent  to,  242-44 
Mountain    Leader   (Opomingo). 

Indian  chief,  247 
Mountaineers  of  the  South.  22;{- 

224 
MUller,  Adam,  16 
Musgrove's     Mill,    engagemcDt 

at,  202 

Nantuca  Indians,  dcpululion  of 
warrior:!  from,  arrive-  at  Chota, 
178 


800 


INDEX 


"Ih 


Xash.  Genrral  Pranrii,  Ifl.<i,  186 
(note) 

NashhorouKh,  Xaahville  firat 
iuttne<l,  180 

Nafihville.  founded,  180:  Andrew 
Jackson  at,  800;  Robertson 
buricti  nt.  «70 

Nathanael,  Brother,  one  of  the 
Moravian  Urethren,  il 

Navigation  Acts  and  Ireland, 
4 

Necessity.  Fort,  81 

Nccly,  Alexander.  100 

New  Franrc,  87,  88 

New  Market  (Va.).  Sevier  founds. 
107 

Nolan,  aids  Wilkinson,  iM 

"Nolichucky  Jack,"  nickname 
of  John  Sevier.  184;  lee  alto 
Sevier 

North  Carolina,  Scotch-Irish  in. 
7;  Craighead  in,  8;  Highland- 
ers in,  12-13;  Moravians  in. 
18;  journey  of  Moravian  Breth- 
ren into,  ltt-24:  rainfall.  43; 
pioneer  homes  in.  45-47;  in 
French  and  Indian  Wars.  82- 
83,  80;  Indian  policy.  83-84; 
Daniel  Boone  in.  9i;  Regu- 
lation Movement.  104,  137. 
159-04;  Transylvania  Com- 
pany formed  in.  129-30;  emi- 
grants go  to  Tennessee.  159; 
Robertson  from.  105;  bound- 
ary line.  170,  18.1.  180;  Wa- 
tauga petitions  for  annexation, 
171-78;  erects  Washington 
County.  172;  Colonial  Records, 
cited,  170  (note),  177  (note); 
sends  out  Robertson  as  Indian 
agent,  183;  Ferguson  in,  203; 
Ferguson's  proclamation  to, 
212-13;  Comwallis  expected 
to  retreat  through,  228;  reso- 
lution of  gratitude  to  over- 
mountain  men,  230;  cedes 
overmountain  territory  to 
United  States.  231-33;  and 
SUte  of  Frankiand,  234.  230- 


237,  2S8;  and  Sevier,  2.19, 240- 
245;  and  State  of  Franklin, 
240;  and  Tennessee  settle- 
ments. 259-00 
North  Wales  (IVnn.).  Boone 
family  in,  25 

Oconoatota,  (.'herokee  chief,  1 18, 

132 
O'Fallon  aids  Wilkinson,  204 
Ohio,  Clark  against  Indians  of, 

151.  153 
Ohio  Company,  77,  78,  81,  111- 

112 
Old    Tassel.    Cherokee    Indian, 

270 
Oley  Township,  Berka  County 

(Pcnn.),    George    Boone    at, 

25,20 
Opimingo    (Mountain    Leader), 

Chickasaw  chief,  247 
Oswego   in    hands   of    English. 

87 
OtUwa  Indians,  118,  178 

Palatines,  tee  Germans 
Paris.  Treaty  of  (1763).  04 
Patrick  Henry,  Fort.  180 
Penn.     William.     Boone    seeks 

information  from.  25 
Pennsylvania.    Scotch-Irish    in. 

1.    0;    Germans   in,    15.    10; 

Boone  family  in.  25-28;  dis- 
putes Fort  Pitt  with  Virginia. 

112 
"Pennsylvania  Dutch,"  13 
"Pennsylvania  Irish,"  0 
Peyton.  Ephraim,  one  of  Donel- 

son's  party,  189 
Peyton,  Mrs.  Ephraim,  Donel- 

son's  account  of,  188,  189, 190 
Philadelphia,       Boone      family 

reaches.  25 
Pickett,    HUtory    of    Alabama, 

cited,  257  (note) 
Piqua,  Indian  town,  153 
Pitfour,     Lord,     of     Aberdeen, 

190 
Pitt,  Fort,  88,  112-13.  115 


J     ;» 


INDEX 


SOI 


Pitttburgh  oilp  n  rrurial   point 

ia  17J4.  81 
Point  Pleasant,  TUtltlc  of,  12»-«1. 

104.  *n 
Ponllo-oy,   Frcnt-h  »f<Tfl  iij{fnl 

in  A  iiericu,  K4!) 
Puwcll  H    Vullrv,    M->;    IWMinr'N 

journey  to,  lb«.  107 
"Powwowing  Duys,"  41 
Presbyterian  ( 'hurch,  and  Scotch- 


Irisn,  'J;  I'hurles  I  sujipreiMefl,  4 
reston,  C  " 
HO.  Uo 


Preston,  Colonel 


1 1  !«ui>pre!M 
William. 


115. 


Priber,  French  agent  to  Chero- 

kees,  CU-70 
ProolaniBtion  of    1763.    110-11, 

Ua,  17U 
Puck-e-shin-wa.  Shawanoe  chief. 

IM 
Pulaiki.  Count.  100  (note) 

Quaker  Meadows,  Sevier's  troops 

at,  1100 
Quakers,  »ec  Frientls,  Society  of 

Red  Shoe,  Choctaw  chief.  03 

Regulation  Movement,  104, 137, 
15&-«4 

Revolutionary  War,  Highlanders 
in,  13-14:  Indian  rai'ls  in 
Kentucky,  139;  King's  Moun- 
tain, 105  it  teq.;  attitude  of 
France  and  Spain  in,  248  et 
seq. 

Roane,  Archibald.  Governor  of 
Tennessee,  207 

Robertson,  James,  "father  of 
Tennessee,"  124-25  (note), 
133;  at  Watauga,  165-66,  170. 
181;  personal  characteristics. 
165;  and  Sevier.  167,  239; 
commands  Wataugans.  172; 
Indian  agent  at  Chota,  183; 
leads  settlers  into  middle 
Tennesse<',  185;  founds  Nash- 
ville, 186;  and  Ferguson,  105; 
and  Indian  war,  246,  255; 
characterizes  McGillivray,259; 
death  (1814),  270 


'  Kob«'tion,  Mrs.  Janio*.  240 

I  Robertson,  Mark.  185 

I  Robinson.  Colonel  David,  140 

Rogers.  John,  H8 

!  Rogers,  Joseph.  153 

j  Roosevelt.  ThwMlorc.  The  Win- 

I  niiig  uf  Ihr   fl'cxf,  i'il«l,    l:{4 

I  (note) 

.  UussoU,  Wiiliaiii,   1U7.  <lfAlh  of 

I  his  son,  108 

Rutherford.  Urifiitli,  1V3 

I  Rutledge,    John.    President    of 

j  South  Carolina,  170  (note) 

I  St.    Asaph's    Station    founded, 

I       130 

I  St.  Augustine,  Spanish  al,  55.  56 

I  St.  Vincent,  Island  of,  Ferguson 

I       on,  197 

'  Sapperton,  trader,  117 
Scotch-Irish,  as  immigrants,  1-2, 
6;  characteristics,  2-3.  5-6; 
religion,  9,  4;  persecution  of, 
4-5;  and  American  Indepeuil- 
encc,  7-8;  bibliography,  287; 
»ee  aUo  Highlanders 
Seven  Years  War,  ca»us  belli, 
7u;  iu  Europe.  82;  land  prom- 
ised to  soldiers  of,  113; 
Ferguson  in,  196 
Sevier,  John.  133;  probably  seen 
by  Brother  (Jrube.  20-21; 
marriage,  48;  at  Watauga, 
166-67,  169,  170.  171;  and 
New  Market,  167;  and  Robert- 
son, 167,  168,  239;  personal 
characteristics,  168-69;  writes 
Virginia  Conmiittee,  173-71; 
and  Indian  troubles,  174,  181- 
183,  220-28;  and  "Bonnie 
Kate,"  182;  nicknamed  "  Noli- 
chucky  Jack,"  184;  and  King's 
Mountain,  200-01.  205-0<i, 
208  et  leq.;  as  a  statesman. 
226  et  seq.;  feud  with  Tipton, 
227.  234,  239-40.  241.  867; 
elected  Governor  of  Tennessee. 
265;  and  Jackson,  266-09; 
death  (1815),  269 


.'K)« 


INDEX 


Sevier,  John,  Jr.,  i43  (note) 

Sevi«r.  Valenline,  IHA  (note) 

Sbaw«noe  ImliaiM,  178;  loc»tion, 
a7:  and  Fr«nrh.  /SH;  F'indlay 
a  priwner  of,  tt7:  and  Booor. 
98-90,  108.  14»-48;  war  with. 
114.  118,  US  id.  relinqimh 
right  to  Kenturiiy,  181;  rap- 
ture girh  from  BooneiborouKn, 
141 

Sh<^lby,  liaar.  at  battle  uf  Point 
I'leaaant.  IM  (note):  Colonel 
of  Sullivan.  1H4;  at  Kingii 
Mountain,  200  ft  «(■</. ;  inoveti 
to  Kentucky,  <30 

Sheltowee  (Big  Turtle),  name 
given  to  Dmine  by  Indiana, 
I4A 

Sherrill,  Bonnie  Kate,  wife  of 
John  Sevier.  18S 

Six  Nations,  right  to  dispone  of 
territory,  76;  fe  aim  Iroqun!^ 
Indians 

Social  customs,  of  seabuard 
towns.  38;  of  pioneers.  .H8  ft 
leg. 

Soutn  Carolina.  Yamasi  Indians 
in.  46;  and  Cherokees.  177; 
Tories  in,  105;  .»»■<■  alfo  Caro- 
linas 

Spain,  and  Indians.  SS,  54,  M; 
attitude  toward  American  in- 
dependence, 848-M;  plots 
against  United  States,  255-63; 
State  of  Franklin  and,  259 

Spnngenburg.  Bishop,  18 

Spanish  Succession.  War  of 
(1701-13).  15 

Spencer,  Judge,  issues  warrant 
for  Sevier,  «4l 

Stanwix,  Fort,  treaty  of  (1768), 
132 

Stephen,  Adam,  125  (note) 

Stewart,  John,  brother-in-law 
of  Daniel  Boone,  95,  98, 
100 

Stoner,  Michael,  120.  121 

Stover,  Jacob,  husband  of  Sarah 
Boone,  25 


Slum- 

Henry 

,    deputy 

Indian 

kK^m 

177 

StU  1  -I 

John. 

with  Dunmore's 

1  >  1 1.^ 

125 

(note); 

British 

a*    nt 

,    174, 

178    (note);    in 

fti  >i> 

•  ^'1  >n. 

129 

Sullivan    <   lunty,   formed   from 

'Va»i        on     County,      184; 

i.  H,p.!  .   q.  201 
Sjf»i  ii-e     Shoals,     conference 

•    lii   ill  litis  at   (1775).  132- 
.        ,."t    ro,   t roopa  mustereil  at, 

yi  '■> 

i   T-    'i-n* ' '.  i!i  t-iis(Bra',chiug()ak 

I       I.     •!!      I'.r.!st).    ^^n>'1     hicf. 
I       »■      "*• 
T:,,l.    .,i).   SI.-    :  ..   itritish 

Ta^  lor.      i^il    .    .<.,      113.       121 
j       (M'te) 
j  Ter>.  naeh,    ■ 

j  Tsi  je««ite,  U;  .'  tea.,  259: 
iiaiiie,  158  (notf) ,  and  Missis- 
!iippi  River  navi^^ation,  254: 
admitted  as  SUte  ( 1 7»6).  205 : 
bibliography.  290-Ul:  tee  aim 
FranUand,  Franklin.  Wu- 
Uuga 

Test  Acts.  4 

Thomas.  Isaac,  trader.  173,  174, 
177.  178,  228 

Thwaites.  R.  G.,  Daniel  Boone, 
cited,  25  (note);  276  (note): 
Documentary  History  of  Dun- 
more's War,  cited,  125  (note) 

Tipton,  Colonel  John,  feud  with 
Sevier.  227.  234,  239-40.  241. 
267;  judge  for  North  Carolina. 
237 

Tipton,  Jonathan.  226-27 

Todd.  John,  149 

Tories,  195 

Traders  among  the  pioneers,  52 
et  seq. 

Traders'  Trace.  94 

Transylvania  Company,  130- 
140 

Trent,  CapUin  William,  81 


INDEX 


»0» 


Tryon,  Willutm,  Itovermir  «»f 
North  ('arf)lina.  I<M.  I<W 

Turkabalchce,  (reek  town,  Se- 
vier buried  «t.  iH» 

Turner,  F.  M.,  Life  of  Genrral 
John  Setter,  cited,  **A  (note) 

(  t»t«r  IHunt^tinn.  .'I  t 
L'Utermen,  »«■«  Sc-otch- Irish 

WrKvnncs,  Charles  Gravier, 
<  inntc   lie,    French    Minister, 

VirxiniH,  <'laim  to  the  Uhiu,  7<i 
77;  Imlitn  |)<>lic-v,  MS;  IndiatiN 
apply  fur  redress  to,  8A;  Daniel 
Roone  in,  Vi;  disputes  Fort 
Pitt  with  Pennsylvania.  Hi; 
Karrodsburft  llenionstran(«, 
140;  Clark  and,  140,  IH;  and 
Boone,  141;  ind  Mississippi 
River  navigatton,  2A4 

Virginia,  Valley  of,  MulK-rs  wl 
ticinent  in,  16 

Wachovia  Tract,  18 

VVaddell,  Hu({h,  of  North  (  aro- 
lina.  in  French  and  Indian 
wars,  8<t,  H7;  erects  fort  on 
Holston.  138;  and  RcKulation 
Movement.  163 

VValpolc  Company,  Hi 

War  of  181ii.  part  of  niounluiii- 
eers  in,  iH 

Ward,  Janivs,  Oj 

Ward,  NarH'y,  bulf-cuslc  <  iicru- 
kce  prophetess,  174,  177 

Warriors'  Path,  107.  I'M.  IM. 
186 

WashinKtoii,  George,  jourue.v.s 
to  Fort  Le  B<cuf.  7!>;  at 
Great  Meadows,  HI;  Brad- 
dock's  Defeat."  82;  surveys 
in  Kentucky.  Ml;  tries  to 
secure  land  patents  for  sol- 
diers. U.i;  and  Indian  allies, 
176  (note);  Ferguson's  slory 
of,  190 


WashinKtim,  Dinlrict  of.  i.a 

Washinffton  County,  ere<»ed  bv 
North  Carolina,  17ti;  divided, 
184 

Watauga  (  olony ,  lands  leased  to, 
134;  liarrod  and  Lo|{an  set 
supplies  from,  141 -4t;  Wil- 
liam lk>an  builds  first  cabin. 
130;  and  Hegulators,  163; 
Robertson  at.  l<M-fl6.  170. 
181;  .Sevier  at,  106-67.  KiO, 
itUO;  found  to  be  on  Indian 
lands,  170;  petitions  .North 
Carolina  for  annexation.  171 
174;  made  into  Washington 
County,  174;  Indian  attack-i 
on,  176,  181-83:  and  King's 
Mountain.  '<(N)-OI.  iOS-.net  aUo 
FraaUand,  Franklin.  TcnnM- 
see 

Wayne,  Mad  Anthony.  iM 

W'eUln  in  America,  54 

Wherling  (W.  Vu.),  «»  rendcx 
vuus  for  troops,  115,  Cresap 
at.  116 

Whit*  Eyes.  Oclaware  chief, 
118 

Wilkinson,  (fenernl  James,  lilil- 

ms 

WilliaOM.  Colonel,  iW 
Williums,  Jarct.  173 
Winchester,  German  scltleiucnt 

near,  16 
Winsor,    Justin,    The    lyettward 

Movement,  quoted.  17tJ  (note) 
Winston,  Major,  176  (note) 
Woolwich,  Ferguson  studies  at, 

107 
Wyandot  Indians.  1 1  ( 

Vadkin  Valley.  .Scotch- Irish  in, 
7;  Craigheaci  in.  8;  High- 
landers in,  12-13;  Moravians 
in.  23;  hfe  in.  36.  47;  huntin;. 
43.  105;  Boone's  home  in.  4^. 
!)0.  97;  Presbyterian  ministers 
in.  50 

V.imasi,  Indians.  5<i  Massacre. 
55 


304 


INDEX 


Yellowstone,   Daniel   Boone  in,  i   Zcisbergcr,     David,     Moravian 


877 

Yorktown,  Cornwallia  gurrenders 
at,  220 


missionary,  17-18,  118 
Zinzendorf ,  Count  (the  Apostle), 
Moravian  leader,  16-17 


